PS 1829 
.S7 
1897 



\ 




^ 




tJ "I ■"''■ 



Jl^obelfii anti Stories ftp ^ret {)artc. 



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SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 



BY 

BRET HARTE 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1897 




Copyright, 1885 and 1886, 
Bt BBET haete. 

All rights reserved. 



SIXTH BDinON. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Com any. 



1^ 



SNOW-BOU]SrD AT EAGLE'S. 



CHAPTER I. 

For some moments profound silence and 
darkness had accompanied a Sierran stage- 
coach towards the summit. The huge, dim 
bulk of the vehicle, swaying noiselessly on 
its straps, glided onward and upward as if 
obeying some mysterious impulse from be- 
hind, so faint and indefinite appeared its re- 
lation to the viewless and silent horses ahead. 
The shadowy trunks of tall trees that seemed 
to approach the coach windows, look in, and 
then move hurriedly away, were the only dis- 
tinguishable objects. Yet even these were 
so vague and unreal that they might have 
been the mere phantoms of some dream of 



;2_^ Aii^ 9c) 



4 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

the half -sleeping passengers ; for the thickly- 
strewn needles of the pine, that choked the 
way and deadened all sound, yielded under 
the silently-crushing wheels a faint soporific 
odor that seemed to benumb their senses, 
already slipping back into unconsciousness 
during the long ascent. Suddenly the stage 
stopped. 

Three of the four passengers inside strug- 
gled at once into upright wakefulness. The 
fourth passenger, John Hale, had not been 
sleeping, and turned impatiently towards the 
window. It seemed to him that two of the 
moving trees had suddenly become motion- 
less outside. One of them moved again, and 
the door opened quickly but quietly, as of 
itself. 

" Git down," said a voice in the darkness. 

All the passengers except Hale started. 
The man next to him moved his right hand 
suddenly behind him, but as quickly stopped. 
One of the motionless trees had apparently 
closed upon the vehicle, and what had seemed 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 5 

to be a bough projecting from it at right 
angles changed slowly into the faintly shin- 
ing double-barrels of a gun at the window. 

" Drop that ! " said the voice. 

The man who had moved uttered a short 
laugh, and returned his hand empty to his 
knees. The two others perceptibly shrugged 
their shoulders as over a game that was lost. 
The remaining passenger, John Hale, fear- 
less by nature, inexperienced by habit, awak- 
ing suddenly to the truth, conceived a des- 
perate resistance. But without his making 
a gesture this was instinctively felt by the 
others ; the muzzle of the gun turned spon- 
taneously on him, and he was vaguely con- 
scious of a certain contempt and impatience 
of him in his companions. 

" Git down," repeated the voice impera- 
tively. 

The three passengers descended. Hale, 
furious, alert, but helpless of any opportu' 
nity, followed. He was surprised to find the 
stage-driver and express messenger standing 



6 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

beside him; lie had not heard them dis- 
mount. He instinctively looked towards the 
horses. He could see nothing. 

" Hold up your hands ! " 

One of the passengers had already lifted 
his, in a weary, perfunctory way. The others 
did the same reluctantly and awkwardly, 
but apparently more from the consciousness 
of the ludicrousness of their attitude than 
from any sense of danger. The rays of a 
bull's-eye lantern, deftly managed by invis- 
ible hands, while it left the intruders in 
shadow, completely illuminated the faces and 
figures of the passengers. In spite of the 
majestic obscurity and silence of surround- 
ing nature, the group of humanity thus il- 
luminated was more farcical than dramatic. 
A scrap of newspaper, part of a sandwich, 
and an orange peel that had fallen from the 
floor of the coach, brought into equal prom- 
inence by the searching light, completed the 
absurdity. 

" There 's a man here with a package of 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 7 

greenbacks," said the voice, with an official 
coolness that lent a certain suggestion of 
Custom House inspection to the transaction ; 
"who is it?" The passengers looked at 
each other, and their glance finally settled 
on Hale. 

" It 's not Aim," continued the voice, with 
a slight tinge of contempt on the emphasis. 
" You '11 save time and searching, gentle- 
men, if you '11 tote it out. If we 've got to 
go through every one of you we '11 try to 
make it pay." 

The significant threat was not unheeded. 
The passenger who had first moved when 
the stage stopped put his hand to his breast. 

" T' other pocket first, if you please," said 
the voice. 

The man laughed, drew a pistol from his 
hip pocket, and, under the strong light of 
the lantern, laid it on a spot in the road in- 
dicated by the voice. A thick envelope, 
taken from his breast pocket, was laid be- 
side it. " I told the d — d fools that gave it 



8 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

to me, instead of sending it by express, it 
would be at their own risk," he said apolo- 
getically. 

" As it 's going with the express now it 's 
all the same," said the inevitable humorist 
of the occasion, pointing to the despoiled 
express treasure-box already in the road. 

The intention and deliberation of the out- 
rage was plain enough to Hale's inexperience 
now. Yet he could not understand the cool 
acquiescence of his fellow - passengers, and 
was furious. His reflections were interrupted 
by a voice which seemed to come from a 
greater distance. He fancied it was even 
softer in tone, as if a certain austerity was 
relaxed. 

" Step in as quick as you like, gentlemen. 
You 've five minutes to wait. Bill." 

The passengers reentered the coach ; the 
driver and express messenger hurriedly 
climbed to their places. Hale would have 
spoken, but an impatient gesture from his 
companions stopped him. They were evi- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 9 

dently listening for something; he listened 
too. 

Yet the silence remained unbroken. It 
seemed incredible that there should be no 
indication near or far of that forceful pres- 
ence which a moment ago had been so domi- 
nant. No rustle in the wayside " brush," nor 
echo from the rocky canon below, betrayed 
a sound of their flight. A faint breeze stirred 
the tall tijDS of the pines, a cone dropped on 
the stage roof, one of the invisible horses 
that seemed to be listening too moved slightly 
in his harness. But this only appeared to 
accentuate the profound stillness. The mo- 
ments were growing interminable, when the 
voice, so near as to startle Hale, broke once 
more from the surrounding obscurity. 

" Good-night ! " 

It was the signal that they were free. The 
driver's whip cracked like a pistol shot, the 
horses sprang furiously forward, the huge 
vehicle lurched ahead, and then bounded 
violently after them. When Hale could 



10 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

make his voice heard in the confusion — a 
confusion which, seemed greater from the 
colorless intensity of their last few moments* 
experience — he said hurriedly, " Then that 
fellow was there all the time ? " 

"I reckon," returned his companion, " he 
stopped five minutes to cover the driver with 
his double-barrel, until the two other men 
got off with the treasure." 

" The two others ! " gasped Hale. " Then 
there were only three men, and we siic." 

The man shrugged his shoulders. The 
passenger who had given up the greenbacks 
drawled, with a slow, irritating tolerance, 
" I reckon you 're a stranger here ? " 

" I am — to this sort of thing, certainly, 
though I live a dozen miles from here, at 
Eagle's Court," returned Hale scornfully. 

" Then you 're the chap that 's doin' that 
fancy ranchin' over at Eagle's," continued 
the man lazily. 

" Whatever I 'm doing at Eagle's Court, 
I 'm not ashamed of it," said Hale tartly ; 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 11 

" and that 's more than I can say of what 
I 've done — or have n't done — to-night, 
I 've been one of six men overawed and 
robbed by three.'' 

"As to the over-awin', ez you call it — 
mebbee you know more about it than us. 
As to the robbin' — ez far as I kin remem- 
ber, yoio have n't onloaded much. Ef you 're 
talkin' about what oughter been done, I '11 
tell you what could have happened. P'r'aps 
ye noticed that when he pulled up I made a 
kind of grab for my wepping behind me ? " 

" I did ; and you were n't quick enough," 
said Hale shortly. 

" I was n't quick enough, and that saved 
you. For ef I got that pistol out and in 
sight o' that man that held the gun " — 

"WeU," said Hale impatiently, "he'd 
have hesitated." 

" He 'd hev blown yo2i with both barrels 
outer the window, and that before I 'd got a 
half-cock on my revolver." 

" But that would have been only one man 



12 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S, 

gone, and there would have been five of you 
left," said Hale haughtily. 

"That might have been, ef you'd con- 
tracted to take the hull charge of two hand- 
fuls of buck-shot and slugs; but ez one 
eighth o' that amount would have done your 
business, and yet left enough to have gone 
round, promiskiss, and satisfied the other pas- 
sengers, it would n't do to kalkilate upon." 

"But the express messenger and the 
driver were armed," continued Hale. 

"They were armed, but not fixed; that 
makes all the difference." 

" I don't understand." 

" I reckon you know what a duel is ? " 

"Yes." 

" Well, the chances agin us was about the 
same as you 'd have ef you was put up agin 
another chap who was allowed to draw a 
bead on you, and the signal to fire was your 
drawin your wearpon. You may be a 
stranger to this sort o' thing, and p'r'aps 
you never fought a duel, but even then you 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 13 

would n't go foolin' your life away on any 
such chances." 

Something in the man's manner, as in a 
certain sly amusement the other passengers 
appeared to extract from the conversation, 
impressed Hale, already beginning to be 
conscious of the ludicrous insufficiency of his 
own grievance beside that of his interlocutor. 

" Then you mean to say this thing is in- 
evitable," said he bitterly, but less aggres- 
sively. 

"Ez long ez they hunt you; when you 
hunt them you 've got the advantage, alius 
provided you know how to get at them ez 
well as they know how to get at you. This 
yer coach is bound to go regular, and on 
certain days. They ain't. By the time the 
sheriff gets out his posse they 've skedad- 
dled, and the leader, like as not, is takin' 
his quiet cocktail at the Bank Exchange, or 
mebbee losin' his earnings to the sheriff 
over draw poker, in Sacramento. You see 
you can't prove anything agin them unless 



14 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

you take them 'on the fly.' It may be a 
part of Joaquim Marietta's band, though I 
would n't swear to it." 

"The leader might have been Gentleman 
George, from up-country," interposed a pas- 
senger. " He seemed to throw in a few 
fancy touches, particlerly in that 'Good 
night.' Sorter chucked a little sentiment in 
it. Did n't seem to be the same thing ez, 
' Git yer d — d suckers,' on the other line." 

" Whoever he was, he knew the road and 
the men who travelled on it. Like ez not, 
he went over the line beside the driver on 
the box on the down trip, and took stock of 
everything. He even knew I had those 
greenbacks ; though they were handed to 
me in the bank at Sacramento. He must 
have been hangin' round there." 

For some moments Hale remained silent. 
He was a civic-bred man, with an intense 
love of law and order ; the kind of man who 
is the first to take that law and order into 
his own hands when he does not find it ex- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 15 

isting to please him. He had a Bostonian's 
respect for respectability, tradition, and pro- 
priety, but was willing to face irregularity 
and impropriety to create order elsewhere. 
He was fond of Nature with these limita- 
tions, never quite trusting her unguided in- 
stincts, and finding her as an instructress 
greatly inferior to Harvard University, 
though possibly not to Cornell. With daunt- 
less enterprise and energy he had built and 
stocked a charming cottage farm in a nook 
in the Sierras, whence he opposed, like the 
lesser Englishman that he was, his own 
tastes to those of the alien West. In the 
present instance he felt it incumbent upon 
him not only to assert his principles, but to 
act upon them with his usual energy. How 
far he was impelled by the half-contemptu- 
ous passiveness of his companions it would 
be difficult to say. 

" What is to prevent the pursuit of them 
at once ? " he asked suddenly. " We are a 
few miles from the station, where horses can 
be procured." 



16 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

"Who's to do it?" replied the other 
lazily. " The stage company will lodge the 
complaint with the authorities, bnt it will 
take two days to get the county officers out, 
and it 's nobody else's funeral." 

"I will go for one," said Hale quietly. 
" I have a horse waiting for me at the sta- 
tion, and can start at once." 

There was an instant of silence. The 
stage-coach had left the obscurity of the 
forest, and by the stronger light Hale could 
perceive that his companion was examining 
him with two colorless, lazy eyes. Presr 
ently he said, meeting Hale's clear glance, 
but rather as if yielding to a careless reflec- 
tion, — 

" It might be done with four men. We 
oughter raise one man at the station." He 
paused. " I don't know ez I 'd mind tak- 
ing a hand myself," he added, stretching 
out his legs with a slight yawn. 

"Ye can count me in, if you 're goin', 
Kernel. I reckon I 'm talkin' to Kernel 



SNOW^BOUA'D AT EAGLE'S. 17 

Clinch," said the passenger beside Hale with 
sudden alacrity. " I 'm Rawlins, of Frisco. 
Heerd of ye afore. Kernel, and kinder 
spotted you jist now from your talk." 

To Hale's surprise the two men, after 
awkwardly and perfunctorily grasping each 
other's hand, entered at once into a languid 
conversation on the recent election at Fresno, 
without the slightest further reference to the 
pursuit of the robbers. It was not until 
the remaining and undenominated passenger 
turned to Hale, and, regretting that he had 
immediate business at the Summit, offered 
to accompany the party if they would wait 
a couple of hours, that Colonel Clinch briefly 
returned to the subject. 

" 2^0117" men will do, and ez we '11 hev to 
take horses from the station we '11 hev to 
take the fourth man from there." 

With these words he resumed his unin- 
teresting conversation with the equally un- 
interested Rawlins, and the undenominated 
passenger subsided into an admiring and 



18 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

dreamy contemplation of them both. With 
all his principle and really high-minded pur- 
pose, Hale could not help feeling constrained 
and annoyed at the sudden subordinate and 
auxiliary position to which he, the projector 
of the enterprise, had been reduced. It was 
true that he had never offered himself as 
their leader ; it was true that the principle 
he wished to uphold and the effect he sought 
to obtain would, be equally demonstrated 
under another ; it was true that the execu- 
tion of his own conception gravitated by 
some occult impulse to the man who had not 
sought it, and whom he had always regarded 
as an incapable. But all this was so unlike 
precedent or tradition that, after the fashion 
of conservative men, he was suspicious of it. 
and only that his honor was now involved 
he would have withdrawn from the enter- 
prise. There was still a chance of reassert- 
ing himself at the station, where he was 
known, and where some authority might be 
deputed to him. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 19 

But even this prospect failed. The sta- 
tion, half hotel and half stable, contained 
only the landlord, who was also express 
agent, and the new volunteer whom Clinch 
had suggested would be found among the 
stable-men. The nearest justice of the peace 
was ten miles away, and Hale had to aban- 
don even his hope of being sworn in as a 
deputy constable. This introduction of a 
common and illiterate ostler into the party 
on equal terms with himself did not add to 
his satisfaction, and a remark from Rawlins 
seemed to complete his embarrassment. 

"Ye had a mighty narrer escape down 
there just now,'' said that gentleman confi- 
dentially, as Hale buckled his saddle girths. 

" I thought, as we were not supposed to 
defend ourselves, there was no danger," said 
Hale scornfully. 

" Oh, I don't mean them road agents. 
But Aim." 

"Who?" 

" Kernel Clinch. You jist ez good as al- 
lowed he had n't any grit." 



20 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" Whatever I said, I suppose I am respon- 
sible for it," answered Hale haughtily. 

" That 's what gits me," was the imper- 
turbable reply. " He 's the best shot in 
Southern California, and hez let daylight 
through a dozen chaps afore now for half 
what you said." 

" Indeed ! " 

" Howsummever," continued Rawlins phil- 
osophically, " ez he 's concluded to go with 
ye instead of for ye, you 're likely to hev 
your ideas on this matter carried out up 
to the handle. He '11 make short work of 
it, you bet. Ef, ez I suspect, the leader is 
an airy young feller from Frisco, who hez 
took to the road lately, Clinch hez got a per- 
sonal grudge agin hun from a quarrel over 
draw poker." 

This was the last blow to Hale's ideal 
crusade. Here he was — an honest, respect- 
able citizen — engaged as simple accessory 
to a lawless vendetta originating at a gam- 
bling table ! When the first shock was over 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 21 

that grim philosophy which is the reaction 
of all iraaginative and sensitive natures came 
to his aid. He felt better; oddly enough 
he began to be conscious that he was think- 
ing and acting like his companions. With 
this feeling a vague sympathy, before ab- 
sent, faintly showed itself in their actions. 
The Sharpe's rifle put into his hands by the 
stable-man was accompanied by a familiar 
word of suggestion as to an equal, which he 
was ashamed to find flattered him. He was 
able to continue the conversation with Raw- 
lins more coolly. 

" Then you suspect who is the leader ? " 
" Only on giniral principles. There was 
a finer touch, so to speak, in this yer rob- 
bery that was n't in the old-fashioned style. 
Down in my country they hed crude ideas 
about them things — used to strip the pas- 
sengers of everything, includin' their clothes. 
They say that at the station hotels, when the 
coach came in, the folks used to stand round 
with blankets to wrap up the passengers so 



22 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

ez not to skeer the wimen. Thar 's a story 
that the driver and express manager drove 
up one day with only a copy of the Alty 
Calif orny wrapped around 'em ; but thin," 
added Rawlins grimly, " there was folks ez 
said the hull story was only an advertisement 
got up for the Alty" 

"Time's up." 

" Are you ready, gentlemen ? " said Colo- 
nel Clinch. 

Hale started. He had forgotten his wife 
and family at Eagle's Court, ten miles away. 
They would be alarmed at his absence, 
would perhaps hear some exaggerated ver- 
sion of the stage coach robbery, and fear the 
worst. 

" Is there any way I could send a line to 
Eagle's Court before daybreak ? " he asked 
eagerly. 

The station was already drained of its 
spare men and horses. The undenominated 
passenger stepped forward and offered to 
take it himself when his business, which he 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 23 

would despatch as quickly as possible, was 
concluded. 

" That ain't a bad idea," said Clinch re- 
flectively, " for ef yer hurry you '11 head 'em 
off in case they scent us, and try to double 
back on the North Ridge. They '11 fight shy 
of the trail if they see anybody ou it, and 
one man 's as good as a dozen." 

Hale could not help thinking that he 
might have been that one man, and had his 
opportunity for independent action but for 
his rash proposal, but it was too late to with- 
draw now. He hastily scribbled a few lines 
to his wife on a sheet of the station paper, 
handed it to t-he man, and took his place in 
the little cavalcade as it filed silently down 
the road. 

They had ridden in silence for nearly an 
hour, and had passed the scene of the rob- 
bery by a higher track. Morning had long 
ago advanced its colors on the cold white 
peaks to their right, and was taking posses- 
sion of the spur where they rode. 



24 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" It looks like snow," said Rawlins quietly. 

Hale turned towards him in astonishment. 
Nothing on earth or sky looked less likely. 
It had been cold, but that might have been 
only a current from the frozen peaks beyond, 
reaching the lower valley. The ridge on 
which they had halted was still thick with 
yellowish - green summer foliage, mingled 
with the darker evergreen of pine and fir. 
Oven-like canons in the long flanks of the 
mountain seemed still to glow with the heat 
of yesterday's noon ; the breathless air yet 
trembled and quivered over stifling gorges 
and passes in the granite rocks, while far at 
their feet sixty miles of perpetual summer 
stretched away over the winding American 
River, now and then lost in a gossamer haze. 
It was scarcely ripe October where they 
stood ; they could see the plenitude of Au- 
gust still lingering in the valleys. 

"I 've seen Thomson's Pass choked up 
with fifteen feet o' snow earlier than this," 
said Rawlins, answering Hale's gaze ; " and 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 25 

last September the passengers sledded over 
the road we came last night, and all the time 
Thomson, a mile lower down over the ridge 
in the hollow, smoking his pipes under roses 
in his piazzy ! Mountains is mighty un- 
certain ; they make their own weather ez 
they want it. I reckon you ain't wintered 
here yet." 

Hale was obliged to admit that he had 
only taken Eagle's Court in the early spring. 

" Oh, you 're all right at Eagle's — when 
you 're there ! But it 's like Thomson's — 

it 's the gettin' there that Hallo ! 

What 's that?" 

A shot, distant but distinct, had rung 
through the keen air. It was followed by 
another so alike as to seem an echo. 

" That 's over yon, on the North Ridge," 
said the ostler, " about two miles as the 
crow flies and five by the trail. Somebody 's 
shootin' b'ar." 

" Not with a shot gun," said Clinch, 
quickly wheeling his horse with a gesture 



26 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

that electrified them. " It 's tJiem^ and they 
Ve doubled on us! To the North Kidge, 
gentlemen, and ride all you know ! " 

It needed no second challenge to com- 
pletely transform that quiet cavalcade. The 
wild man -hunting instinct, inseparable to 
most humanity, rose at their leader's look 
and word. With an incoherent and unin- 
telligible cry, giving voice to the chase like 
the commonest hound of their fields, the or- 
der-loving Hale and the philosophical Raw- 
lins wheeled with the others, and in another 
instant the little band swept out of sight in 
the forest. 

An immense and immeasurable quiet suc- 
ceeded. The sunlight glistened silently on 
cliff and scar, the vast distance below seemed 
to stretch out and broaden into repose. It 
might have been fancy, but over the sharp 
line of the North Ridge a light smoke lifted 
as of an escaping soul. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Eagle's Court, one of the highest canons 
o£ the Sierras, was in reality a plateau of ta- 
ble-land, embayed like a green lake in a semi- 
circular sweep of granite, that, lifting itself 
three thousand feet higher, became a foun- 
dation for the eternal snows. The mountain 
genii of space and atmosphere jealously 
guarded its seclusion and surrounded it with 
illusions ; it never looked to be exactly what 
it was : the traveller who saw it from the 
North Ridge apparently at his feet in de- 
scending found himself separated from it by 
a mile-long abyss and a rushing river ; those 
who sought it by a seeming direct trail at 
the end of an hour lost sight of it completely, 
or, abandoning the quest and retracing their 
steps, suddenly came upon the gap through 
which it was entered. That which from the 



28 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

Ridge appeared to be a copse of bushes be- 
side the tiny dwelling were trees three hun- 
dred feet high; the cultivated lawn before 
it, which might have been covered by the 
traveller's handkerchief, was a field of a 
thousand acres. 

The house itself was a long, low, irregular 
structure, chiefly of roof and veranda, pic- 
turesquely upheld by rustic pillars of pine, 
with the bark still adhering, and covered 
with vines and trailing roses. Yet it was 
evident that the coolness produced by this 
vast extent of cover was more than the ar- 
chitect, who had planned it under the influ- 
ence of a staring and bewildering sky, had 
trustfully conceived, for it had to be miti- 
gated by blazing fires in open hearths when 
the thermometer marked a hundred degrees 
in the field beyond. The dry, restless wind 
that continually rocked the tall masts of the 
pines with a sound like the distant sea, while 
it stimulated out-door physical exertion and 
defied fatigue, left the sedentary dwellers m 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 29 

these altitudes chilled in the shade they 
courted, or scorched them with heat when 
they ventured to bask supinely in the sun. 
White muslin curtains at the French win- 
dows, and rugs, skins, and heavy furs dis- 
persed in the interior, with certain other 
charming but incongruous details of furni- 
ture, marked the inconsistencies of the cli- 
mate. 

There was a coquettish indication of this in 
the costume of Miss Kate Scott as she stepped 
out on the veranda that morning. A man's 
broad-brimmed Panama hat, partly unsexed 
by a twisted gayly-colored scarf, but retain- 
ing enough character to give piquancy to the 
pretty curves of the face beneath, protected 
her from the sun ; a red flannel shirt — an- 
other spoil from the enemy — and a thick 
jacket shielded her from the austerities of 
the morning breeze. But the next inconsis- 
tency was peculiarly her own. Miss Kate 
always wore the freshest and lightest of 
white cambric skirts, without the least refer- 



30 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

ence to the temperature. To the practical 
sanatory remonstrances of her brother-in-law, 
and to the conventional criticism of her sis- 
ter, she opposed the same defence: "How 
else is one to tell when it is summer in 
this ridiculous climate ? And then, woollen 
is stuffy, color draws the sun, and one at 
least knows when one is clean or dirty." 
Artistically the result was far from unsatis- 
factory. It was a pretty figure under the 
sombre pines, against the gray granite and 
the steely sky, and seemed to lend the yel- 
lowing fields from which the flowers had al- 
ready fled a floral relief of color. I do not 
think the few masculine wayfarers of that 
locality objected to it ; indeed, some had be- 
trayed an indiscreet admiration, and had cu- 
riously followed the invitation of Miss Kate's 
warmly-colored figure until they had encoun- 
tered the invincible indifference of Miss 
Kate's cold gray eyes. With these manifes- 
tations her brother-in-law did not concern 
himself; he had j^erfect confidence in her 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 31 

unqualified disinterest in the neighboring 
humanity, and permitted her to wander in 
her solitary pieturesqueness, or accompanied 
her when she rode in her dark gTeen habit, 
with equal freedom from anxiety. 

For Miss Scott, although only twenty, 
had already subjected most of her maidenly 
illusions to mature critical analyses. She 
had voluntarily accomj^anied her sister and 
mother to California, in the earnest hope 
that nature contained something worth say- 
ing to her, and was disappointed to find she 
had already discounted its value in the pages 
of books. She hoi3ed to find a vague free- 
dom in this unconventional life thus opened 
to her, or rather to show others that she 
knew how intelligently to appreciate it, but 
as yet she was only able to express it in the 
one detail of dress already alluded to. Some 
of the men, and nearly all the women, she 
had met thus far, she was amazed to find, 
valued the conventionalities she believed she 
despised, and were voluntarily assuming the 



32 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

chains she thought she had thrown off. In- 
stead of learning anything from them, these 
children of nature had bored her with eager 
questionings regarding the civilization she 
had abandoned, or irritated her with crude 
imitations of it for her benefit. " Fancy," 
she had written to a friend in Boston, " my 
calling on Sue Murphy, who remembered the 
Donner tragedy, and who once shot a grizzly 
that was prowling round her cabin, and think 
of her begging me to lend her my sack for 
a pattern, and wanting to know if ' polonays ' 
were still worn." She remembered more bit- 
terly the romance that had tickled her ear- 
lier fancy, told of two college friends of her 
brother-in-law's who were living the " per- 
fect life " in the mines, laboring in the 
ditches with a copy of Homer in their pock- 
ets, and writing letters of the purest philoso- 
phy under the free air of the pines. How, 
coming unexpectedly on them in their Arca- 
dia, the party found them unpresentable 
through dirt, and thenceforth unknowable 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 33 

through domestic complications that had 
filled their Arcadian cabin with half-bred 
children. 

Much of this disillusion she had kept 
within her own heart, from a feeling of pride, 
or only lightly touched upon it in her rela- 
tions with her mother and sister. For Mrs. 
Hale and Mrs. Scott had no idols to shatter, 
no enthusiasm to subdue. Firmly and un- 
alterably conscious of their own superiority 
to the life they led and the community that 
surrounded them, they accepted their duties 
cheerfully, and performed them conscien- 
tiously. Those duties were loyalty to Hale's 
interests and a vague missionary work among 
the neighbors, which, like most missionary 
work, consisted rather in making their own 
ideas understood than in understanding the 
ideas of their audience. Old Mrs. Scott's 
zeal was partly religious, an inheritance from 
her Puritan ancestry ; Mrs. Hale's was the 
affability of a gentlewoman and the obliga- 
tion of her position. To this was added the 



34 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

slight languor of the cultivated American 
wife, whose health has been affected by the 
birth of her first child, and whose views of 
marriage and maternity were slightly tinged 
with gentle scepticism. She was sincerely 
attached to her husband, " who dominated 
the household " like the rest of his " women 
folk," with the faint consciousness of that 
division of service which renders the posi- 
tion of the sultan of a seraglio at once so 
prominent and so precarious. The attitude 
of John Hale in his family circle was domi- 
nant because it had never been subjected to 
criticism or comparison ; and perilous for 
the same reason. 

Mrs. Hale presently joined her sister in 
the veranda, and, shading her eyes with a 
narrow white hand, glanced on the prospect 
with a polite interest and ladylike urbanity. 
The searching sun, which, as Miss Kate once 
intimated, was " vulgarity itself," stared at 
her in return, but could not call a blush to 
her somewhat sallow cheek. Neither could 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 35 

it detract, however, from the delicate pretti- 
ness of her refined face with its soft gray 
shadows, or. the dark gentle eyes, whose blue- 
veined lids were just then wrinkled into co- 
quettishly mischievous lines by the strong 
light. She was taller and thinner than Kate, 
and had at times a certain shy, coy sinuosity 
of movement which gave her a more virginal 
suggestion than her unmarried sister. For 
Miss Kate, from her earliest youth, had been 
distinguished by that matronly sedateness of 
voice and step, and completeness of figure, 
which indicates some members of the gal- 
linaceous tribe from their callow infancy. 

"I suppose John must have stopped at 
the Summit on some business," said Mrs. 
Hale, " or he would have been here already. 
It 's scarcely worth while waiting for him, 
unless 3^ou choose to ride over and meet him. 
You might change your dress," she con- 
tinued, looking doubtfully at Kate's costume. 
" Put on your riding-habit, and take Manuel 
with you." 



36 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" And take the only man we have, and 
leave you alone?" returned Kate slowly. 
""No!" 

" There are the Chinese field hands," said 
Mrs. Hale; "you must correct your ideas, 
and really allow them some humanity, Kate. 
John says they have a very good comjjulsory 
school system in their own country, and can 
read and write." 

" That would be of little use to you here 
alone if — if " Kate hesitated. 

" If what ? " said Mrs. Hale, smiling. 
"Are you thinking of Manuel's dreadful 
story of the grizzly tracks across the fields 
this morning ? I promise you that neither 
I, nor mother, nor Minnie shall stir out of 
the house until you return, if you wish it." 

" I was n't thinking of that," said Kate ; 
" though I don't believe the beating of a 
gong and the using of strong language is the 
best way to frighten a grizzly from the house. 
Besides, the Chinese are going down the 
river to-day to a funeral, or a wedding, or a 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 37 

feast of stolen chickens — tliey 're all the 
same — and won't be here." 

" Then take Manuel," repeated Mrs. Hale. 
" We have the Chinese servants and Indian 
Molly in the house to protect us from Heaven 
knows what ! I have the greatest confidence 
in Chy-Lee as a warrior, a.nd in Chinese war- 
fare generally. One has only to hear him 
pipe in time of peace to imagine what a terror 
he might become in war time. Indeed, any- 
thing more deadly and soul-harrowing than 
that love song he sang for us last night I 
cannot conceive. But really, Kate, I am not 
afraid to stay alone. You know what John 
says : we ought to be always prepared for 
anything that might happen." 

'' My dear Josie," returned Kate, putting 
her arm around her sister's waist, '' I am 
perfectly convinced that if three - fingered 
Jack, or two-toed Bill, or even Joaquim Mu- 
rietta himself, should step, red-handed, on 
that veranda, you would gently invite him 
to take a cup of tea, inquire about the state 



38 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

of the road, and refrain delicately from any 
allusions to the sheriff. But I sha'n't take 
Manuel from you. I really cannot under- 
take to look after his morals at the station, 
and keep him from drinking aguardiente 
with suspicious characters at the bar. It is 
true he ' kisses my hand ' in his speech, even 
when it is thickest, and offers his back to 
me for a horse-block, but I think I prefer 
the sober and honest famiharity of even that 
Pike County landlord who is satisfied to 
say, ' Jump, girl, and I '11 ketch ye ! '" 

" I hope you did n't change your manner 
to either of them for that," said Mrs. Hale 
with a faint sigh. " John wants to be good 
friends with them, and they are behaving 
quite decently lately, considering that they 
can't speak a grammatical sentence nor 
know the use of a fork." 

" And now the man puts on gloves and a 
tall hat to come here on Sundays, and the 
woman won't call until you 've called first," 
retorted Kate ; " perhaps you call that im- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 39 

provement. The fact is, Josephine," con- 
tinued the young girl, folding her arms de- 
murely, " we might as well admit it at once 
— these people don't like us." 

" That 's impossible ! " said Mrs. Hale, 
with sublime simplicity. " You don't like 
them, you mean." 

" I like them better than you do, Josie, 
and that 's the reason why / feel it and 
you don't." She checked herself, and after 
a pause resumed in a lighter tone : " No ; I 
sha'n't go to the station ; I '11 commune with 
nature to-day, and won't ' take any human- 
ity in mine, thank you,' as Bill the driver 
says. Adiosy 

" I wish Kate would not use that dreadful 
slang, even in jest," said Mrs. Scott, in her 
rocking-chair at the French window, when 
Josephine reentered the parlor as her sister 
walked briskly away. " I am afraid she is 
being infected by the people at the station. 
She ought to have a change." 

"I was just thinking," said Josephine, 



40 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

looking abstractedly at her mother, " that I 
would try to get John to take her to San 
Francisco this winter. The Careys are ex- 
pected, you know ; she might visit them." 

" I 'm afraid, if she stays here much 
longer, she won't care to see them at all. 
She seems to care for nothing now that she 
ever liked before," returned the old lady 
ominously. 

Meantime the subject of these criticisms 
was carrying away her own reflections tightly 
buttoned up in her short jacket. She had 
driven back her dog Spot — another one 
of her disillusions, who, giving way to his 
lower nature, had once killed a sheep — as 
she did not wish her Jacques-like contempla- 
tion of any wounded deer to be inconsistently 
interrupted by a fresh outrage from her 
companion. The air was really very chilly, 
and for the first time in her mountain ex- 
perience the direct rays of the sun seemed 
to be shorn of their power. This compelled 
her to walk more briskly than she was con- 



SNOW-BO Ui^D AT EAGLE'S. 41 

seious of, for in less than an hour she came 
suddenly and breathlessly upon the mouth 
of the canon, or natural gateway to Eagle's 
Court. 

To her always a profound spectacle of 
mountain magnificence, it seemed to-day al- 
most terrible in its cold, strong grandeur. 
The narrowing pass was choked for a mo- 
ment between two gigantic buttresses of 
granite, approaching each other so closely at 
their towering summits that trees growing 
in opposite clefts of the rock intermingled 
their branches and pointed the soaring 
Gothic arch of a stupendous gateway. She 
raised her eyes with a quickly beating 
heart. She knew that the interlacing trees 
above her were as large as those she had 
just quitted; she knew also that the point 
where they met was only half way up the 
cliff, for she had once gazed down upon 
them, dwindled to shrubs from the airy sum- 
mit ; she knew that their shaken cones fell 
a thousand feet perpendicularly, or bounded 



42 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

like shot from the scarred walls they boniir 
bardecl. She remembered that one of these 
pines, dislodged from its high foundations, 
had once dropped like a portcullis in the 
archway, blocking the pass, and was only 
carried afterwards by assault of steel and 
fire. Bending her head mechanically, she 
ran swiftly through the shadowy passage, 
and halted only at the beginning of the as- 
cent on the other side. 

It was here that the actual position of the 
plateau, so indefinite of approach, began to 
be realized. It now appeared an indepen- 
dent elevation, surrounded on three sides by 
gorges and watercourses, so narrow as to 
be overlooked from the principal mountain 
range, with which it was connected by a 
long canon that led to the Eidge. At the 
outlet of this canon — in bygone ages a 
mighty river — it had the appearance of 
having been slowly raised by the diluvium 
of that river, and the debris washed down 
from above — a suggestion repeated in mini- 



mOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S, 43 

ature by the artificial plateaus of excavated 
soil raised before the mouths of mining tun- 
nels in the lower flanks of the mountain. It 
was the realization of a fact — often forgot- 
ten by the dwellers in Eagle's Court — that 
the valley below them, which was their con- 
necting link with the surrounding world, was 
only reached by ascending the mountain, and 
the nearest road was over the higher moun- 
tain ridge. Never before had this impressed 
itself so strongly upon the young girl as 
when she turned that morning to look upon 
the plateau below her. It seemed to illus- 
trate the conviction that had been slowly 
shaping itself out of her reflections on the 
conversation of that morning. It was pos- 
sible that the perfect understanding of a 
higher life was only reached from a height 
still greater, and that to those half-way up 
the mountain the summit was never as truth- 
fully revealed as to tiie humbler dwellers in 
the valley. 

I do not know that these profound truths 



44 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

prevented her from gathering some quaint 
ferns and berries, or from keeping her calm 
gray eyes open to certain practical changes 
that were taking place around her. She had 
noticed a singular thickening in the atmos- 
phere that seemed to j^revent the passage of 
the sun's rays, yet without diminishing the 
transparent quality of the air. The distant 
snow-peaks were as plainly seen, though they 
appeared as if in moonlight. This seemed 
due to no cloud or mist, but rather to a fad- 
ing of the sun itself. The occasional flurry 
of wings overhead, the whirring of larger 
birds in the cover, and a frequent* rustling in 
the undergrowth, as of the passage of some 
stealthy animal, began equally to attract her 
attention. It was so different from the ha- 
bitual silence of these sedate solitudes. Kate 
had no vague fear of wild beasts ; she had 
been long enough a mountaineer to under- 
stand the general immunity enjoyed by the 
unmolesting wayfarer, and kept her way un- 
dismayed. She was descending an abrupt 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 45 

trail when she was stopped by a sudden 
crash in the bushes. It seemed to come 
from the opposite incline, directly in a line 
with her, and apparently on the very trail 
that she was pursuing. The crash was then 
relocated again and again lower down, as of 
a descending body. Expecting the appari- 
tion of some fallen tree, or detached boulder 
bursting through the thicket, in its way to 
the bottom of the gulch, she waited. The 
foliage was suddenly brushed aside, and a 
large grizzly bear half rolled, half waddled, 
into the trail on the opposite side of the hill. 
A few moments more would have brought 
them face to face at the foot of the aulch : 
when she stopped there were not fifty yards 
between them. 

She did not scream ; she did not faint ; 
she was not even frightened. There did not 
seem to be anything terrifying in this huge, 
stupid beast, who, arrested by the rustle of 
a stone displaced by her descending feet, 
^ose slowly on his haunches and gazed at 



46 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

her with small, wondering eyes. Nor did 
it seem strange to her, seeing that he was 
in her way, to pick up a stone, throw it in 
his direction, and say simply, '' Sho ! get 
away! " as she would have done to an in- 
truding cow. Nor did it seem odd that he 
should actually " go away " as he did, scram- 
bling back into the bushes again, and disap- 
pearing like some grotesque figure in a trans- 
formation scene. It was not until after he 
had gone that she was taken with a slight 
nervousness and giddiness, and retraced her 
steps somewhat hurriedly, shying a little at 
every rustle in the thicket. By the time 
she had reached the great gateway she was 
doubtful whether to be pleased or frightened 
at the incident, but slie concluded to keep 
it to herself. 

It was still intensely cold. The light of 
the midday sun had decreased still more, 
and on reaching the plateau again she saw 
that a dark cloud, not unlike the precursor 
of a thunder-storm, was brooding over the 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 47 

snowy peaks beyond. In spite o£ the cold 
this singular suggestion of summer phenom- 
ena was still borne out by the distant smil- 
ing valley, and even in the soft grasses at 
her feet. It seemed to her the crowning in- 
consistency of the climate, and with a half- 
serious, half-playful protest on her lips she 
hurried forward to seek the shelter of the 
house. 



CHAPTER III. 

To Kate's surprise, the lower part of the 
house was deserted, but there was an un- 
usual activity on the floor above, and the 
sound of heavy steps. There were alien 
marks of dusty feet on the scrupulously 
clean passage, and on the first step of the 
stairs a spot of blood. With a sudden genu- 
ine alarm that drove her previous adventure 
from her mind, she impatiently called her 
sister's name. There was a hasty yet sub- 
dued rustle of skirts on the staircase, and 
Mrs. Hale, with her finger on her lip, swept 
Kate unceremoniously into the sitting-room, 
closed the door, and leaned back against it, 
with a faint smile. She had a crumpled 
paper in her hand. 

" Don't be alarmed, but read that first," 
she said, handing her sister the paper. " It 
was brought just now." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 49 

Kate instantly recognized her brother's 
distinct hand. She read hurriedly, " The 
coach was robbed last night ; nobody hurt. 
I 've lost nothing but a day's time, as this 
business will keep me here until to-morrow, 
when Manuel can join me with a fresh horse. 
No cause for alarm. As the bearer goes 
out of his way to bring you this, see that he 
wants for nothing." 

" Well," said Kate expectantly. 

" Well, the ' bearer ' was fired upon by 
the robbers, who were lurking on the Ridge. 
He was wounded in the leg. Luckily he 
was picked up by his friend, who was com- 
ing to meet him, and brought here as the 
nearest place. He's up-stairs in the spare 
bed in the spare room, with his friend, who 
won't leave his side. He won't even have 
mother in the room. They 've stopped the 
bleeding with John's ambulance things, and 
now, Kate, here 's a chance for you to show 
the value of your education in the ambu- 
lance class. The ball has got to be ex- 
tracted. Here 's your opportunity." 



60 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 

Kate looked at her sister curiously. There 
was a faint pink flush on her pale cheeks, 
and her eyes were gently sparkling. She 
had never seen her look so pretty before. 

" Why not have sent Manuel for a doctor 
at once ? " asked Kate. 

" The nearest doctor is fifteen miles away, 
and Manuel is nowhere to be found. Per- 
haps he 's gone to look after the stock. 
There 's some talk of snow ; imagine the ab- 
surdity of it ! " ^ 

"But who are they?" 

" They speak of themselves as ' friends,' 
as if it were a profession. The wounded one 
was a passenger, I suppose." 

" But what are they like ? " continued 
Kate. " I suppose they 're like them all." 

Mrs. Hale shrugged her shoulders. 

" The wounded one, when he 's not faint- 
ing away, is laughing. The other is a crea- 
ture with a moustache, and gloomy beyond 
expression." 

" What are you going to do with them ? " 
said Kate. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 51 

" What should I do ? Even without 
John's letter I could not refuse the shelter 
of my house to a wounded and helpless man. 
I shall keep him, of course, until John 
comes. Why, Kate, I really believe you are 
so prejudiced against these people you'd 
like to turn them out. But I forget ! It 's 
because you like them so well. Well, you 
need not fear to expose yourself to the fasci- 
nations of the wounded Christy Minstrel — 
I 'm sure he 's that — or to the unspeakable 
one, who is shyness itself, and would not 
dare to raise his eyes to you." 

There was a timid, hesitating step in the 
passage. It paused before the door, moved 
away, returned, and finally asserted its in- 
tentions in the gentlest of taps. 

" It 's him ; I 'm sure of it," said Mrs. 
Hale, with a suppressed smile. 

Kate threw open the door smartly, to the 
extreme discomfiture of a tall, dark figure 
that already had slunk away from it. For 
all that, he was a good-looking enough fel- 



62 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

low, with a moustache as long and almost as 
flexible as a ringlet. Kate could not help 
noticing also that his hand, which was ner- 
vously pulling the moustache, was white and 
thin. 

"Excuse me," he stammered, without 
raising his eyes, " I was looking for — for 

— the old lady. I — I beg your pardon. I 
did n't know that you — the young ladies 

— company — were here. I intended — I 
only wanted to say that my friend " — He 
stopped at the slight smile that passed 
quickly over Mrs. Hale's mouth, and his 
pale face reddened with an angry flush. 

" I hope he is not worse," said Mrs. Hale, 
with more than her usual languid gentle- 
ness. " My mother is not here at present. 
Can I — can we — this is my sister — do as 
weU?" 

Without looking up he made a constrained 
recognition of Kate's presence, that, embar- 
rassed and curt as it was, had none of the 
awkwardness of rusticity. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 53 

" Thank you ; you 're very kind. But my 
friend is a little stronger, and if you can lend 
me an extra horse I '11 try to get him on the 
Summit to-night." 

" But you surely will not take him away 
from us so soon ? " said Mrs. Hale, with a 
languid look of alarm, in which Kate, how- 
ever, detected a certain real feeling. " Wait 
at least until my husband returns to-mor- 
row." 

" He won't be here to-morrow," said the 
stranger hastily. He stopped, and as quickly 
corrected himself. " That is, his business is 
so very uncertain, my friend says." 

Only Kate noticed the slip ; but she no- 
ticed also that her sister was apparently un- 
conscious of it. *•' You think," she said, 
" that Mr. Hale may be delayed ? " 

He turned upon her almost brusquely. " I 
mean that it is already snowing up there ; " 
he pointed through the window to the cloud 
Kate had noticed ; " if it comes down lower 
in the pass the roads will be blocked up. 



64 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 

That is why it would be better for us to try 
and get on at once." 

" But if Mr. Hale is likely to be stopped 
by snow, so are you," said Mrs. Hale play- 
fully ; '' and you had better let us try to 
make your friend comfortable here rather 
than expose him to that uncertainty in his 
weak condition. We will do our best for 
him. My sister is dying for an opportunity 
to show her skill in surgery," she continued, 
with an unexpected mischievousness that 
only added to Kate's surprised embarrass- 
ment. " Are n't you, Kate ? " 

Equivocal as the young girl knew her si- 
lence appeared, she was unable to utter the 
simplest polite evasion. Some unaccounta- 
ble impulse kept her constrained and speech- 
less. The stranger did not, however, wait 
for her reply, but, casting a swift, hurried 
glance around the room, said, " It 's impos- 
sible ; we must go. In fact, I 've already 
taken the liberty to order the horses round. 
They are at the door now. You may be cer- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 55 

tain," he added, with quick earnestness, sud- 
denly lifting his dark eyes to Mrs. Hale, 
and as rapidly withdrawing them, " that your 
horse will be returned at once, and — and 
— we won't forget your kindness." He 
stopped and turned towards the hall. "I — 
I have brought my friend down-stairs. He 
wants to thank you before he goes." 

As he remained standing in the hall the 
two women stepped to the door. To their 
surprise, half reclining on a cane sofa was 
the wounded man, and what could be seen 
of his slight figure was wrapped in a dark 
serape. His beardless face gave him a quaint 
boyishness quite inconsistent with the mature 
lines of his temples and forehead. Pale, and 
in pain, as he evidently was, his blue eyes 
twinkled with intense amusement. Not only 
did his manner offer a marked contrast to 
the sombre uneasiness of his companion, but 
he seemed to be the only one perfectly at his 
ease in the group around him. 

" It 's rather rough making you come out 



56 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

here to see me off," he said, with a not un- 
musical laugh that was very infectious, " but 
Ned there, who carried me down -stairs, 
wanted to tote me round the house in his 
arms like a baby to say ta-ta to you all. Ex- 
cuse my not rising, but I feel as uncertain 
below as a mermaid, and as out of my ele- 
ment," he added, with a mischievous glance 
at his friend. " Ned concluded I must go 
on. But I must say good-by to the old lady 
first. Ah ! here she is." 

To Kate's complete bewilderment, not only 
did the utter familiarity of this speech pass 
unnoticed and unrebuked by her sister, but 
actually her own mother advanced quickly 
with every expression of lively sympathy, 
and with the authority of her years and an 
almost maternal anxiety endeavored to dis- 
suade the invalid from going. " This is not 
my house," she said, looking at her daugh- 
ter, " but if it were I should not hear of 
your leaving, not only to - night, but until 
you were out of danger. Josephine ! Kate ! 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 57 

What are you thinking of to permit it? 
Well, then, /forbid it — there ! " 

Had they become suddenly insane, or were 
they bewitched by this morose intruder and 
his insufferably familiar confidant ? The man 
was wounded, it was true ; they might have 
to put him up in common humanity; but 
here was her austere mother, who would n't 
come in the room when Whisky Dick called 
on business, actually pressing both of the in- 
valid's hands, while her sister, who never ex- 
tended a finger to the ordinary visiting hu- 
manity of the neighborhood, looked on with 
evident complacency. 

The wounded man suddenly raised Mrs. 
Scott's hand to his lips, kissed it gently, and, 
with his smile quite vanished, endeavored to 
rise to his feet. " It 's of no use — we must 
go. Give me your arm, Ned. Quick ! Are 
the horses there ? " 

"Dear me," said Mrs. Scott quickly, "I 
forgot to say the horse cannot be found any- 
where. Manuel must have taken him this 



58 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

morning to look up tlie stock. But he will 
be back to-niglit certainly, and if to-mor- 
row " — 

The wounded man sank back to a sitting 
position. " Is Manuel your man ? " he 
asked grimly. 

" Yes." 

The two men exchanged glances. 

" Marked on his left cheek and drinks a 
good deal ? " 

"Yes," said Kate, finding her voice. 
"Why?" 

The amused look came back to the man's 
eyes. " That kind of man is n't safe to wait 
for. We must take our own horse, Ned. 
Are you ready ? " 

"Yes." 

The wounded man again attempted to 
rise. He fell back, but this time quite 
heavily. He had fainted 

Involuntarily and simultaneously the three 
women rushed to his side. " He cannot go," 
said Kate suddenly. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 59 

" He will be better in a moment." 

" But only for a moment. Will nothing 
induce you to change your mind ? " 

As if in reply a sudden gust of wind 
brought a volley of rain against the window. 

" TJiat will," said the stranger bitterly. 

"The rain?" 

" A mile from here it is snoio ; and be- 
fore we could reach the Summit with these 
horses the road would be impassable." 

He made a slight gesture to himself, as if 
accepting an inevitable defeat, and turned 
to his companion, who was slowly reviving 
under the active ministration of the two 
women. The wounded man looked around 
with a weak smile. "This is one way of 
going off," he said faintly, " but I could do 
this sort of thing as well on the road." 

" You can do nothing now," said his 
friend, decidedly. " Before we get to the 
Gate the road will be impassable for our 
horses." 

" For any horses ? " asked Kate. 



60 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" for any horses. For any man or beast 
I miglit say. Where we cannot get out, no 
one can get in," he added, as if answering 
her thoughts. " I am afraid that you won't 
see your brother to-morrow morning. But 
I '11 reconnoitre as soon as I can do so with- 
out torturing Aim," he said, looking anx- 
iously at the helpless man ; " he 's got about 
his share of pain, I reckon, and the first 
thing is to get him easier." It was the 
longest speech he had made to her ; it was 
the first time he had fairly looked her in 
the face. His shy restlessness had suddenly 
given way to dogged resignation, less ab- 
stracted, but scarcely more flattering to his 
entertainers. Lifting his companion gently 
in his arms, as if he had been a child, he 
reascended the staircase, Mrs. Scott and the 
hastily-summoned Molly following with over- 
flowing solicitude. As soon as they were 
alone in the parlor Mrs. Hale turned to 
her sister : " Only that our guests seemed 
to be as anxious to go just now as you were 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 61 

to pack them off, I should have been shocked 
at your inhospitality. What has come over 
you, Kate ? These are the very people you 
have reproached me so often with not being 
civil enough to." 

" But loho are they ? " 

'' How do I know ? There is your brother^ s 
letter." 

She usually spoke of her husband as 
" John." This slight shifting of relation- 
ship and responsibility to the feminine mind 
was significant. Kate was a little frightened 
and remorseful. 

" I only meant you don't even know their 
names." 

" That was n't necessary for giving them 
a bed and bandages. Do you suppose the 
good Samaritan ever asked the wounded 
Jew's name, and that the Levite did not 
excuse himself because the thieves had taken 
the poor man's card-case? Do the direc- 
tions, ' In case of accident,' in your ambu- 
lance rules, read, ' First lay the sufferer on 



Q2 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

his back and inquire his name and family- 
connections ' ? Besides, you can call one 
' Ned ' and the other ' George,' if you like." 

'' Oh, you know what I mean," said Kate, 
irrelevantly. " Which is George ? " 

" George is the wounded man," said Mrs. 
Hale ; " not the one who talked to you more 
than he did to any one else. I suppose the 
poor man was frightened and read dismissal 
in your eyes." 

" I wish John were here." 

" 1 don't think we have anything to fear 
in his absence from men whose only wish is 
to get away from us. If it is a question of 
propriety, my dear Kate, surely there is the 
presence of mother to prevent any scandal 
— although really her own conduct with the 
wounded one is not above suspicion," she 
added, with that novel mischievousness that 
seemed a return of her lost girlhood. " We 
must try to do the best we can with them 
and for them," she said decidedly, " and 
meantime I '11 see if I can't arrange John's 
room for them." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 63 

" John's room ? " 

"Oh, mother is perfectly satisfied; in- 
deed, suggested it. It 's larger and will 
hold two beds, for ' Ned,' the friend, must 
attend to him at night. And, Kate, don't 
you think, if you 're not going out again, 
you might change your costume ? It does 
very well while we are alone " — 

" Well," said Kate indignantly, " as I am 
not going into his room " — 

" I 'm not so sure about that, if we can't 
get a regular doctor. But he is very restless, 
a^d wanders all over the house like a timid 
and apologetic spaniel." 
" Who ? " 

" Why ' Ned.' But I must go and look 
after the patient. I suppose they 've got 
him safe in his bed again," and with a nod 
to her sister she tripped up-stairs. 

Uncomfortable and embarrassed, she knew 
not why, Kate sought her mother. But that 
good lady was already in attendance on the 
patient, and Kate hurried past that baleful 



64 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

centre of attraction with a feeling of lone- 
liness and strangeness she had never experi- 
enced before. Entering her own room she 
went to the window — that first and last ref- 
uge of the troubled mind — and gazed out. 
Turning her eyes in the direction of her 
morning's walk, she started back with a 
sense of being dazzled. She rubbed first her 
eyes and then the rain-dimmed pane. It was 
no illusion ! The whole landscape, so famil- 
iar to her, was one vast field of dead, color- 
less white! Trees, rocks, even distance it- 
self, had vanished in those few hours. An 
even, shadowless, motionless white sea filled 
the horizon. On either side a vast wall of 
snow seemed to shut out the world like a 
shroud. Only the green plateau before her, 
with its sloping meadows and fringe of pines 
and Cottonwood, lay alone like a summer isl- 
and in this frozen sea. 

A sudden desire to view this phenomenon 
more closely, and to learn for herself the 
limits of this new tethered life, completely 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 65 

possessed her, and, accustomed to act upon 
her independent'impulses, she seized a hooded 
waterproof cloak, and slipped out of the 
house unperceived. The rain was falling 
steadily along the descending trail where she 
walked, but beyond, scarcely a mile across 
the chasm, the wintry distance began to con- 
fuse her brain with the inextricable swarm- 
ing of snow. Hurrying down with feverish 
excitement, she at last came in sight of the 
arching granite portals of their domain. But 
her first glance through the gateway showed 
it closed as if with a white portcullis. Kate 
remembered that the trail began to ascend 
beyond the arch, and knew that what she 
saw was only the mountain side she had 
partly climbed this morning. But the snow 
had already crept down its flank, and the 
exit by trail was practically closed. Breath- 
lessly making her way back to the highest 
part of the plateau — the cliff behind the 
house that here descended abruptly to the 
rain-dimmed valley — she gazed at the dizzy 



6Q SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

depths in vain for some undiscovered or for- 
gotten trail along its face. * But a single 
glance convinced her of its inaccessibility. 
The gateway was indeed their only outlet 
to the plain below. She looked back at the 
falling snow beyond until she fancied she 
could see in the crossing and recrossing lines 
the moving meshes of a fateful web woven 
around them by viewless but inexorable 
fingers. 

Half frightened, she was turning away, 
when she perceived, a few paces distant, the 
figure of the stranger, "Ned," also appar- 
ently absorbed in the gloomy prospect. He 
was wrapped in the clinging folds of a black 
serape braided with silver ; the broad flap of 
a slouched hat beaten back by the wind ex- 
posed the dark, glistening curls on his white 
forehead. He was certainly very handsome 
and picturesque, and that apparently without 
effort or consciousness. Neither was there 
anything in his costume or appearance in- 
consistent with his surroundings, or, even 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 67 

with what Kate could judge were his habits 
or position. Nevertheless, she instantly de- 
cided that he was too handsome and too pic- 
turesque, without suspecting that her ideas 
of the limits of masculine beauty were merely 
personal experience. 

As he turned away from the cliff they 
were brought face to face. " It does n't 
look very encouraging over there," he said 
quietly, as if the inevitableness of the situ- 
ation had relieved him of his previous shy- 
ness and effort ; " it 's even worse than I ex- 
pected. The snow must have begun there 
last night, and it looks as if it meant to 
stay." He stopped for a moment, and then, 
lifting his eyes to her, said : — "I suppose 
you know what this means ? " 

" I don't understand you." 

" I thought not. Well ! it means that you 
are absolutely cut off here from any commu- 
nication or intercourse with any one outside 
of that canon. By this time the snow is five 
feet deep over the only trail by which one 



68 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

can pass in and out of tliat gateway. I am 
not alarming you, I hope, for there is no real 
physical danger ; a place like this ought to 
be well garrisoned, and certainly is self-sup- 
porting so far as the mere necessities and 
even comforts are concerned. You have 
wood, water, cattle, and game at your com- 
mand, but for two weeks at least you are 
completely isolated." 

" For two weeks," said Kate, growing 
pale — " and my brother ! " 

" He knows all by this time, and is prob- 
ably as assured as I am of the safety of his 
family." 

" For two weeks," continued Kate ; " im- 
possible ! You don't know my brother I He 
will find some way to get to us." 

" I hope so," returned the stranger grave- 
ly, " for what is possible for him is possible 
for us." 

"Then you are anxious to get away," 
Kate could not help saying. 

"Very." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 69 

The reply was not discourteous in man- 
ner, but was so far from gallant that Kate 
felt a new and inconsistent resentment. Be- 
fore she could say anything he added, " And 
I ho23e you will remember, whatever may 
happen, that I did my best to avoid staying 
here longer than was necessary to keep my 
friend from bleeding to death in the road." 

" Certainly," said Kate ; then added awk- 
wardly, " I hope he '11 be better soon." She 
was silent, and then, quickening her pace, 
said hurriedly, " I must tell my sister this 
dreadful news." 

" I think she is prepared for it. If there 
is anything I can do to help you I hope you 
will let me know. Perhaps I may be of 
some service. I shall begin by exploring the 
trails to-morrow, for the best service we can 
do you possibly is to take ourselves off; but 
I can carry a gun, and the woods are full of 
game driven down from the mountains. Let 
me show you something you may not have 
noticed." He stopped, and pointed to a 



70 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

small knoll of sheltered shrubbery and gran- 
ite on the opposite mountain, which still re- 
mained black against the surrounding snow. 
It seemed to be thickly covered with mov- 
ing objects. " They are wild animals driven 
out of the snow," said the stranger. " That 
larger one is a grizzly ; there is a panther, 
wolves, wild cats, a fox, and some mountain 
goats." 

" An ill-assorted party," said the young 
girl. 

" 111 luck makes them companions. They 
are too frightened to hurt one another now." 

" But they will eat each other later on," 
said Kate, stealing a glance at her compan- 
ion. 

He lifted his long lashes and met her 
eyes. " Not on a haven of refuge." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Kate found her sister, as the stranger 
had intimated, fully prej^ared. A hasty in- 
ventory of provisions and means of subsist- 
ence showed that they had ample resources 
for a much longer isolation. 

" They tell me it is by no means an un- 
common case, Kate ; somebody over at some- 
body's place was snowed in for four weeks, 
and now it appears that even the Summit 
House is not always accessible. John ought 
to have known it when he bought the place ; 
in fact, I was ashamed to admit that he did 
not. But that is like John to prefer his own 
theories to the experience of others. How- 
ever, I don't suppose we should even notice 
the privation except for the mails. It will 
be a lesson to John, though. As Mr. Lee 
says, he is on the outside, and can probably 



72 SNOW-BOUffD AT EAGLE'S. 

go wherever lie likes from the Summit ex- 
cept to come here." 

" Mr. Lee ? " echoed Kate. 

" Yes, the wounded one ; and the other's 
name is Falkner. I asked them in order 
that you might be proj^erly introduced. 
There were very respectable Falkners in 
Charlestown, you remember ; I thought you 
might warm to the name, and perhaps trace 
the connection, now that you are such good 
friends. It 's providential they are here, as 
we haven't got a horse or a man in the place 
since Manuel disappeared, though Mr. Falk- 
ner says he can't be far away, or they would 
have met him on the trail if he had gone to- 
wards the Summit." 

" Did they say anything more of Man- 
uel?" 

" Nothing ; though I am inclined to agree 
with you that he is n't trustworthy. But 
that again is the result of John's idea of 
employing native skill at the expense of re- 
taining native habits." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 73 

The evening closed early, and with no 
diminution in the falling rain and rising 
wind. Falkner kept his word, and unosten- 
tatiously performed the out-door work in the 
barn and stables, assisted by the only Chi- 
nese servant remaining, and under the ad- 
vice and supervision of Kate. Although he 
seemed to understand horses, she was sur- 
prised to find that he betrayed a civic igno- 
rance of the ordinary details of the farm 
and rustic household. It was quite impossi- 
ble that she should retain her distrustful at- 
titude, or he his reserve in their enforced 
companionship). They talked freely of sub- 
jects suggested by the situation, Falkner 
exhibiting a general knowledge and intui- 
tion of things without parade or dogmatism. 
Doubtful of all versatility as Kate was, she 
could not help admitting to herself that his 
truths were none the less true for their 
quantity or that he got at them without os- 
tentatious processes. His talk certainly was 
more picturesque than her brother's, and 



74 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

less subduing to her faculties. John had 
always crushed her. 

When they returned to the house he did 
not linger in the parlor or sitting-room, but 
at once rejoined his friend. When dinner 
was ready in the dining-room, a little more 
deliberately arranged and ornamented than 
usual, the two women were somewhat sur- 
prised to receive an excuse from Falkner, 
begging them to allow him for the present 
to take his meals with the patient, and thus 
save the necessity of another attendant. 

" It is all shyness, Kate," said Mrs. Hale, 
confidently, " and must not be permitted for 
a moment." 

"I'm sure I should be quite willing to 
stay with the poor boy myself," said Mrs. 
Scott, simply, " and take Mr. Falkner's 
place while he dines." 

" You are too willing, mother," said Mrs. 
Hale, pertly, " and your ' poor boy,' as you 
call him, will never see thirty-five again." 

" He will never see any other birthday," 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 75 

retorted her mother, " unless you keep him 
more quiet. He only talks when you 're in 
the room." 

" He wants some relief to his friend's long 
face and moustachios that make him look 
prematurely in mourning," said Mrs. Hale, 
with a slight increase of animation. "I 
don't propose to leave them too much to- 
gether. After dinner we 'U adjourn to their 
room and lighten it up a little. You must 
come, Kate, to look at the patient, and coun- 
teract the baleful effects of my frivolity." 

Mrs. Hale's instincts were truer than 
her mother's experience ; not only that the 
wounded man's eyes became brighter under 
the provocation of her presence, but it was 
evident that his naturally exuberant spirits 
were a part of his vital strength, and were 
absolutely essential to his quick recovery. 
Encouraged by Falkner's grave and practi- 
cal assistance, which she could not ignore, 
Kate ventured to make an examination of 
Lee's wound. Even to her unpractised eye 



76 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

it was less serious than at first appeared. 
The great loss of blood had been due to the 
laceration of certain small vessels below the 
knee, but neither artery nor bone was in- 
jured. A recurrence of the haemorrhage or 
fever was the only thing to be feared, and 
these could be averted by bandaging, repose, 
and simple nursing. 

The unfailing good humor of the patient 
under this manipulation, the quaint origi- 
nality of his speech, the freedom of his 
fancy, which was, however, always controlled 
by a certain instinctive tact, began to affect 
Kate nearly as it had the others. She found 
herself laughing over the work she had un- 
dertaken in a pure sense of duty ; she joined 
in the hilarity produced by Lee's affected 
terror of her surgical mania, and offered to 
undo the bandages in search of the thimble 
he declared she had left in the wound with 
a view to further experiments. 

" You ought to broaden your practice," he 
suggested. " A good deal might be made 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 77 

out of Ned and a piece of soap left care- 
lessly on the first step of the staircase, while 
mountains of surgical opportunities lie in 
a humble orange peel judiciously exposed. 
Only I warn you that you would n't find him 
as docile as I am. Decoyed into a snow- 
drift and frozen, you might get some valua- 
ble experiences in resuscitation by thawing 
him." 

" I fancied you had done that already, 
Kate," whispered Mrs. Hale. 

" Freezing is the new suggestion for pain- 
less surgery," said Lee, coming to Kate's re- 
lief with ready tact, "only the knowledge 
should be more generally spread. There was 
a man up at Strawberry fell under a sledge- 
load of wood in the snow. Stunned by the 
shock, he was slowly freezing to death, when, 
with a tremendous effort, he succeeded in 
freeing himself all but his right leg, pinned 
down by a small log. His axe happened to 
have fallen within reach, and a few blows on 
the log freed him." 



78 ^NOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" And saved tlie poor fellow's life," said 
Mrs. Scott, who was listening with sympa- 
thizing intensity. 

" At the expense of his left leg^ which he 
had unknowingly cut off under the pleasing 
supposition that it was a log," returned Lee 
demurely. 

Nevertheless, in a few moments he man- 
aged to divert the slightly shocked suscepti- 
bilities of the old lady with some raillery of 
himself, and did not again interrupt the even 
good-humored communion of the party. The 
rain beating against the windows and the 
fire sparkling on the hearth seemed to lend 
a charm to their peculiar isolation, and it 
was not until Mrs. Scott rose with a warn- 
ing that they were trespassing upon the rest 
of their patient that they discovered that the 
evening had slipped by unnoticed. When 
the door at last closed on the bright, sympa- 
thetic eyes of the two young women and the 
motherly benediction of the elder, Falkner 
walked to the window, and remained silent, 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 79 

looking into the darkness. Suddenly lie 
turned bitterly to his companion. 

" This is just h— 11, George." 

George Lee, with a smile still on his boy- 
ish face, lazily moved his head. 

" I don't know ! If it was n't for the old 
woman, who is the one solid chunk of abso- 
lute goodness here, expecting nothing, want- 
ing nothing, it would be good fun enough ! 
These two women, cooped up in this house, 
wanted excitement. They 've got it ! That 
man Hale wanted to show off by going for 
us ; he 's had his chance, and will have it 
again before I 've done with him. That 
d — d fool of a messenger wanted to go out 
of his way to exchange shots with me ; I 
reckon he 's the most satisfied of the lot ! I 
don't know why you should growl. You did 
your level best to get away from here, and 
the result is, that little Puritan is ready to 
worship you." 

" Yes — but this playing it on them — 
George — this " — 



80 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" Who 's playing it ? Not you ; I see 
you 've given away our names already." 

" I could n't lie, and they know nothing 
by that." 

" Do you think they would be happier by 
knowing it ? Do you think that soft little 
creature would be as happy as she was to- 
night if she knew that her husband had been 
indirectly the means of laying me by the 
heels here ? Where is the swindle ? This 
hole in my leg? If you had been five min- 
utes under that girl's d — d sympathetic fin- 
gers you 'd have thought it was genuine. Is 
it in our trying to get away ? Do you call 
that ten-feet drift in the pass a swindle ? Is 
it in the chance of Hale getting back while 
we 're here ? That 's real enough, is n't it ? 
I say, Ned, did you ever give your unfettered 
intellect to the contemplation of that f " 

Falkner did not reply. There was an in- 
terval of silence, but he could see from the 
movement of George's shoulders that he was 
shaking with suppressed laughter. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 81 

" Fancy Mrs. Hale archly introducing her 
husband ! My offering him a chair, but be- 
ing all the time obliged to cover him with a 
derringer under the bedclothes. Your rush- 
ing in from your peaceful pastoral pursuits 
in the barn, with a pitchfork in one hand 
and the girl in the other, and dear old 
mammy sympathizing all round and trying 
to make everything comfortable." 

'• I should not be alive to see it, George," 
said Falkner gloomily. 

" You 'd manage to pitchfork me and 
those two women on Hale's horse and ride 
away ; that 's what you 'd do, or I don't 
know you ! Look here, Ned," he added 
more seriously, " the only swindling was our 
bringing that note here. That was your 
idea. You thought it would remove sus- 
picion, and as you believed I was bleeding 
to death you played that game for all it was 
worth to save me. You might have done 
what I asked you to do — propped me up in 
the bushes, and got away yourself. I was 



82 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

good for a couple of shots yet, and after that 
— what mattered ? That night, the next day, 
the next time I take the road, or a year 
hence ? It will come when it will come, all 
the same ! " 

He did not speak bitterly, nor relax his 
smile. Falkner, without speaking, slid his 
hand along the coverlet. Lee grasped it, 
and their hands remained clasped together 
for a few moments in silence. 

" How is this to end ? We cannot go on 
here in this way," said Falkner suddenly. 

"If we cannot get away it must go on. 
Look here, Ned. I don't reckon to take 
anything out of this house that I didn't 
bring in it, or is n't freely offered to me ; 
yet I don't otherwise, you understand, in- 
tend making myself out a d — d bit better 
than I am. That 's the only excuse I have 
for not making myself out just luhat I am. 
I don't know the fellow who 's obliged to 
tell every one the last company he was in, 
or the last thing he did ! Do you suppose 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 83 

even these pretty little women tell us their 
whole story? Do you fancy that this St. 
Jolm in the wilderness is canonized in his 
family? Perhaps, when I take the liberty 
to intrude in his affairs, as he has in mine, 
he'd see he isn't. I don't blame you for 
being sensitive, Ned. It 's natural. When 
a man lives outside the revised statutes of 
his own State he is apt to be awfully fine on 
points of etiquette in his own household. As 
for me, I find it rather comfortable here. 
The beds of other people's making strike 
me as being more satisfactory than my own. 
Good-night." 

In a few moments he was sleeping the 
peaceful sleep of that youth which seemed 
to be his own dominant quality. Falkner 
stood for a little space and watched him, fol- 
lowing the boyish lines of his cheek on the 
pillow, from the shadow of the light brown 
lashes under his closed lids to the lifting of 
his short upper lip over his white teeth, with 
his regular respiration. Only a sharp ac- 



84 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

centing of the line of nostril and jaw and a 
faint depression of the temple betrayed his 
already tried manhood. 

The house had long sunk to repose when 
Falkner returned to the window, and re- 
mained looking out upon the storm. Sud- 
denly he extinguished the light, and passing 
quickly to the bed laid his hand upon the 
sleeper. Lee opened his eyes instantly. 

" Are you awake ? " 

" Perfectly." 

" Somebody is trying to get into the 
house ! " 

" Not Aim, eh ? " said Lee gayly. 

" No ; two men. Mexicans, I think. One 
looks like Manuel." 

" Ah," said Lee, drawing himself up to a 
sitting posture. 

"Well?" 

" Don't you see ? He believes the women 
are alone." 

" The dog — d— d hound ! " 

" Speak respectfully of one of my people, 



SNQW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 85 

if you please, and hand me my derringer. 
Light the candle again, and open the door. 
Let them get in quietly. They '11 come 
here first. It 's his room, you understand, 
and if there 's any money it 's here. Any 
way, they must pass here to get to the wo- 
men's rooms. Leave Manuel to me, and you 
take care of the other." 

" I see." 

" Manuel knows the house, and will come 
first. When he 's fairly in the room shut 
the door and go for the other. But no 
noise. This is just one of the sw-eetest 
things out — if it 's done properly." 

"But you^ George ? " 

" If I could n't manage that fellow with- 
out turning down the bedclothes I 'd kick 
myself. Hush. Steady now." 

He lay down and shut his eyes as if in 
natural repose. Only his right hand, care- 
lessly placed under his pillow, closed on the 
handle of his pistol. Falkner quietly slipped 
into the passage. The light of the candle 



86 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

faintly illuminated the floor and opposite 
wall, but left it on either side in pitchy ob- 
scurity. 

For some moments the silence was broken 
only by the sound of the rain without. The 
recumbent figure in bed seemed to have ac- 
tually succumbed to sleep. The multitudi- 
nous small noises of a house in repose might 
have been misinterpreted by ears less keen 
than the sleeper's ; but when the apparent 
creaking of a far-off shutter was followed by 
the sliding apparition of a dark head of tan- 
gled hair at the door, Lee had not been de- 
ceived, and was as prepared as if he had 
seen it. Another step, and the figure entered 
the room. The door closed instantly behind 
it. The sound of a heavy body struggling 
against the partition outside followed, and 
then suddenly ceased. 

The intruder turned, and violently grasped 
the handle of the door, but recoiled at a 
quiet voice from the bed. 

" Drop that, and come here." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 87 

He started back with an exclamation. The 
sleeper's eyes were wide open ; the sleeper's 
extended arm and pistol covered him. 

" Silence ! or I '11 let that candle shine 
through you." 

"Yes, captain!" growled the astounded 
and frightened half-breed. " I did n't know 
you were here." 

Lee raised himself, and grasped the long 
whip in his left hand and whirled it round 
his head. 

" Will you dry up ? " 

The man sank back against the wall in 
silent terror. 

" Open that door now — softly." 

Manuel obeyed with trembling fingers. 

" Ned," said Lee in a low voice, " bring 
him in here — quick." 

There was a slight rustle, and Falkner ap- 
peared, backing in another gasping figure, 
whose eyes were starting under the strong 
grasp of the captor at his throat. 

" Silence," said Lee, " all of you." 



88 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

There was a breathless pause. The sound 
of a door hesitatingly opened in the passage 
broke the stillness, followed by the gentle 
voice of Mrs. Scott. 

" Is anything the matter ? " 

Lee made a slight gesture of warning to 
Falkner, of menace to the others. " Every- 
thing 's the matter," he called out cheerily. 
" Ned 's managed to half pull down the 
house trying to get at something from my 
saddle-bags." 

" I hope he has not hurt himself," broke 
in another voice mischievously. 

" Answer, you clumsy villain," whispered 
Lee, with twinkling eyes. 

" I 'm all right, thank you," responded 
Falkner, with unaffected awkwardness. 

There was a slight murmuring of voices, 
and then the door was heard to close. Lee 
turned to Falkner. 

" Disarm that hound and turn him loose 
outside, and make no noise. And you, Man- 
uel ! tell him what his and your chances are 
if he shows his black face here again." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 89 

Manuel cast a single, terrified, supplicat- 
ing glance, more suggestive than words, at 
his confederate, as Falkner shoved him be- 
fore him from the room. The next moment 
they were silently descending the stairs. 

" May I go too, captain ? " entreated Man- 
uel. " I swear to God " — 

" Shut the door ! " The man obeyed. 

"Now, then," said Lee, with a broad, 
gratified smile, laying down his whip and 
pistol within reach, and comfortably settling 
the pillows behind his back, " we '11 have a 
quiet confab. A sort of old-fashioned talk, 
eh ? You 're not looking well, Manuel. 
You 're drinking too much again. It spoils 
your complexion." 

" Let me go, captain," pleaded the man, 
emboldened by the good-humored voice, but 
not near enough to notice a peculiar light in 
the speaker's eye. 

" You Ve only just come, Manuel ; and at 
considerable trouble, too. Well, what have 
you got to say? What's all this about? 
What are you doing here ? " 



90 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

The captured man shuffled his feet ner. 
vously, and only uttered an uneasy laugh of 
coarse discomfiture. 

" I see. You 're bashful. Well, I '11 help 
you along. Come ! You knew that Hale 
was away and these women were here with- 
out a man to help them. You thought you 'd 
find some money here, and have your own 
way generally, eh ? " 

The tone of Lee's voice inspired him to 
confidence ; unfortunately, it inspired him 
with familiarity also. 

" I reckoned I had the right to a little fun 
on my own account, cap. I reckoned ez one 
gentleman in the profession would n't inter- 
fere with another gentleman's little game," 
he continued coarsely. 

" Stand up." 

" Wot for ? " 

"Up, I say!" 

Manuel stood up and glanced at him. 

" Utter a cry that might frighten these 
women, and by the living God they '11 rush 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 91 

in here only to find you lying dead on the 
floor of the house you 'd have polluted." 

He grasped the whip and laid the lash of 
it heavily twice over the ruffian's shoulders. 
Writhing in suppressed agony, the man fell 
imploringly on his knees. 

" Now, listen ! " said Lee, softly twirling 
the whip in the air. " I want to refresh 
your memory. Did you ever learn, when 
you were with me — before I was obliged to 
kick you out of gentlemen's company — to 
break into a private house ? Answer ! " 

" No," stammered the wretch. 

" Did you ever learn to rob a woman, a 
child, or any but a man, and that face to 
face ? " 

" No," repeated Manuel. 

" Did you ever learn from me to lay a fin- 
ger upon a woman, old or young, in anger 
or kindness ? " 

" No." 

" Then, my poor Manuel, it 's as I feared ; 
civilization has ruined you. Farming and 



92 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

a simple, bucolic life have perverted your 
morals. So you were running off with the 
stock and that mustang, when you got stuck 
in the snow ; and the luminous idea of this 
little game struck you ? Eh ? That was 
another mistake, Manuel ; I never allowed 
you to think when you were with me." 

" No, captain." 

" Who 's your friend ? " 

" A d — d cowardly nigger from the Sum- 
mit." 

" I agree with you for once ; but he has n't 
had a very brilliant example. Where 's he 
gone now? " 

" To h— 11, for all I care ! " 

" Then I want you to go with him. Lis- 
ten. If there 's a way out of the place, you 
know it or can find it. I give you two days 
to do it — you and he. At the end of that 
time the order will be to shoot you on sight. 
Now take off your boots." 

The man's dark face visibly whitened, his 
teeth chattered in superstitious terror. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 93 

" I 'm not going to shoot you now," said 
Lee, smiling, '' so you will have a chance to 
die with your boots on,^ if you are supersti- 
tious. I only want you to exchange them 
for that pair of Hale's in the corner. The 
fact is I have taken a fancy to yours. That 
fashion of wearing the stockings outside 
strikes me as one of the neatest things out." 

Manuel sullenly drew off his boots with 
their muffled covering, and put on the ones 
designated. 

" Now open the door." 

He did so. Falkner was already waiting 
at the threshold. " Turn Manuel loose with 
the other, Ned, but disarm him first. They 
might quarrel. The habit of carrying arms, 
Manuel," added Lee, as Falkner took a 
pistol and bowie-knife from the half-breed, 
" is of itself i3rovocative of violence, and in- 
consistent with a bucolic and j^astoral life." 

1 " To die with one's boots on." A synonym for death by 
violence, popular among Southwestern desperadoes, and the 
subject of superstitious dread. 



94 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

When Falkner returned he said hurriedly 
to his companion, " Do you think it wise, 
George, to let those hell-hounds loose ? Good 
God ! I could scarcely let my grip of his 
throat go, when I thought of what they were 
hunting." 

" My dear Ned," said Lee, luxuriously en- 
sconcing himself under the bedclothes again 
with a slight shiver of delicious warmth, " I 
must warn you against allowing the natural 
pride of a higher walk to prejudice you 
against the general level of our profession. 
Indeed, I was quite struck with the justice 
of Manuel's protest that I was interfering 
with certain rude processes of his own to- 
wards results aimed at by others." 

" George ! " interrupted Falkner, almost 
savagely. 

" Well. I admit it 's getting rather late 
in the evening for pure philosophical inquiry, 
and you are tired. Practically, then, it was 
wise to let them get away before they dis- 
covered two things. One, our exact rela- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 95 

tions here with these women ; and the other, 
how many of us were here. At present they 
think we are three or four in possession and 
with the consent of the women." 
" The dogs ! " 

" They are paying us the highest compli- 
ment they can conceive of by supposing us 
cleverer scoundrels than themselves. You 
are very unjust, Ned." 

" If they escape and tell their story ? " 
" We shall have the rare pleasure of know- 
ing we are better than people believe us. 
And now put those boots away somewhere 
where we can produce them if necessary, as 
evidence of Manuel's evening call. At pres- 
ent we '11 keep the thing quiet, and in the 
early morning you can find out where they 
got in and remove any traces they have left. 
It is no use to frighten the women. There 's 
no fear of their returning." 
" And if they get away ? " 
" We can follow in their tracks." 
" If Manuel gives the alarm ? " 



96 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" With his burglarious boots left behind 
in the house ? Not much ! Good-night, 
Ned. Go to bed." 

With these words Lee turned on his side 
and quietly resumed his interrupted slumber. 
Falkner did not, however, follow this sensi- 
ble advice. When he was satisfied that his 
friend was sleeping he opened the door softly 
and looked out. He did not appear to be lis- 
tening, for his eyes were fixed upon a small 
pencil of light that stole across the passage 
from the foot of Kate's door. He watched 
it until it suddenly disappeared, when, leav- 
ing the door partly open, he threw himself 
on his couch without removing his clothes. 
The slight movement awakened the sleeper, 
who was beo'innino^ to feel the accession of 
fever. He moved restlessly. 

" George," said Falkner, softly. 

" Yes." 

" Where was it we passed that old Mis- 
sion Church on the road one dark night, and 
saw the light burning before the figure of 
the Virgin through the window ? " 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 97 

There was a moment of crushing silence. 
" Does that mean you 're wanting to light 
the candle again ? " 

"No." 

" Then don't lie there inventing sacrile- 
gious conundrums, but go to sleep." 

Nevertheless, in the morning his fever was 
slightly worse. Mrs. Hale, offering her con- 
dolence, said, " I know that you have not 
been resting well, for even after your friend 
met with that mishap in the hall, I heard 
your voices, and Kate says your door was 
open all night. You have a little fever too, 
Mr. Falkner." 

George looked curiously at Falkner's pale 
face — it was burning. 



CHAPTER V. 

The speed and fury with which Clinch's 
cavalcade swept on in the direction of the 
mysterious shot left Hale no chance for re- 
flection. He was conscious of shouting in- 
coherently with the others, of urging his 
horse irresistibly forward, of momentarily 
expecting to meet or overtake something, 
but without any further thought. The fig- 
ures of Clinch and Rawlins immediately be- 
fore him shut out the prospect of the nar- 
rowing trail. Once only, taking advantage 
of a sudden halt that threw them confusedly 
together, he managed to ask a question. 

"Lost their track — found it again!" 
shouted the ostler, as Clinch, with a cry like 
the baying of a hound, again darted forward. 
Their horses were panting and trembling 
under them, the ascent seemed to be growing 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 99 

steeper, a singular darkness, which even the 
density of the wood did not sufficiently ac- 
count for, surrounded them, but still their 
leader madly urged them on. To Hale's re- 
turning senses they did not seem in a condi- 
tion to engage a single resolute man, who 
might have ambushed in the woods or beaten 
them in detail in the narrow gorge, but in 
another instant the reason of their furious 
haste was manifest. Spurring his horse 
ahead, Clinch dashed out into the open with 
a cheering shout — a shout that as quickly 
changed to a yell of imprecation. They were 
on the Ridge in a blinding snow-storm ! The 
road had already vanished under their feet, 
and with it the fresh trail they had so closely 
followed ! They stood helplessly on the shore 
of a trackless white sea, blank and spotless 
of any trace or sign of the fugitives. 

" 'Pears to me, boys," said the ostler, sud- 
denly ranging before them, " ef you 're not 
kalkilatin' on gittin' another party to dig ye 
out, ye 'd better be huntin' fodder and cover 



100 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

instead of road agents. 'Skuse me, gentle- 
men, but I 'm responsible for the bosses, and 
this ain't no time for circus-ridin'. We 're 
a matter o' six miles from the station in a 
bee line." 

"Back to the trail, then," said Clinch, 
wheeling his horse towards the road they 
had just quitted. 

" 'Skuse me. Kernel," said the ostler, lay- 
ing his hand on Clinch's rein, " but that way 
only brings us back the road we kem — the 
stage road — three miles further from home. 
That three miles is on the divide, and by the 
time we get there it will be snowed up worse 
nor this. The shortest cut is along the 
Ridge. If we hump ourselves we ken cross 
the divide afore the road is blocked. And 
that, 'skuse me, gentlemen, is my road." 

There was no time for discussion. The 
road was already palpably thickening under 
their feet. Hale's arm was stiffened to his 
side by a wet, clinging snow-wreath. The 
figures of the others were almost obliterated 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 101 

and shapeless. It was not snowing — it was 
snowballing ! The huge flakes, shaken like 
enormous feathers out of a vast blue-black 
cloud, commingled and fell in sprays and 
patches. All idea of their former pursuit 
was forgotten ; the blind rage and enthusi- 
asm that had possessed them was gone. 
They dashed after their new leader with 
only an instinct for shelter and succor. 

They had not ridden long when fortu- 
nately, as it seemed to Hale, the character 
of the storm changed. The snow no longer 
fell in such large flakes, nor as heavily. A 
bitter wind succeeded ; the soft snow began 
to stiffen and crackle under the horses' 
hoofs ; they were no longer weighted and en- 
cumbered by the drifts upon their bodies; 
the smaller flakes now rustled and rasped 
against them like sand, or bounded from 
them like hail. They seemed to be moving 
more easily and rapidly, their spirits were 
rising with the stimulus of cold and motion, 
when suddenly their leader halted. 



102 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

"It's no use, boys. It can't be done I 
This is no blizzard, but a regular two 
days' snifter! It's no longer meltin', but 
packin' and driftin' now. Even if we get 
over the divide, we 're sure to be blocked up 
in the pass." 

It was true ! To their bitter disappoint- 
ment they could now see that the snow had 
not really diminished in quantity, but that 
the now finely-powdered particles were rap- 
idly filling all inequalities of the surface, 
packing closely against projections, and 
swirling in long furrows across the levels. 
They looked with anxiety at their self-con- 
stituted leader. 

" We must make a break to get down in 
the woods again before it 's too late," he said 
briefly. 

But they had already drifted away from 

the fringe of larches and dwarf pines that 

marked the sides of the Kidge, and lower 

down merged into the dense forest that 

' clothed the flank of the mountain they had 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 103 

lately climbed, and it was with the greatest 
difficulty that they again reached it, only to 
find that at that point it was too precipitous 
for the descent of their horses. Benumbed 
and speechless, they continued to toil on, op- 
posed to the full fury of the stinging snow, 
and at times obliged to turn their horses to 
the blast to keep from being blown over the 
Ridge. At the end of half an hour the ostler 
dismounted, and, beckoning to the others, 
took his horse by the bridle, and began the 
descent. When it came to Hale's turn to 
dismount he could not help at first recoiling 
from the prospect before him. The trail — 
if it could be so called — was merely the 
track or furrow of some fallen tree dragged, 
by accident or design, diagonally across the 
sides of the mountain. At times it appeared 
scarcely a foot in width ; at other times a 
mere crumbling gully, or a narrow shelf 
made by the projections of dead boughs and 
collected debris. It seemed perilous for a 
:2oot passenger, it appeared impossible for a 



104 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

horse. Nevertheless, he had taken a step 
forward when Clinch laid his hand on his 
arm. 

" You '11 bring up the rear," he said not 
unkindly, " ez you 're a stranger here. Wait 
until we sing out to you." 

" But if I prefer to take the same risks 
as you all ? " said Hale stiffly. 

" You kin," said Clinch grimly. " But I 
reckoned, as you were n't familiar with this 
sort o' thing, you wouldn't keer, by any 
foolishness o' yours, to stampede the rocks 
ahead of us, and break down the trail, or 
send down an avalanche on top of us. But 
just ez you like." 

" I will wait, then," said Hale hastily. 

The rebuke, however, did him good ser- 
vice. It preoccupied his mind, so that it 
remained unaffected by the dizzy depths, 
and enabled him to abandon himself me- 
chanically to the sagacity of his horse, who 
was contented simply to follow the hoof- 
prints of the preceding animal, and in a few 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 105 

moments they reached the broader trail be- 
low without a mishap. A discussion regard- 
ing their future movements was already tak- 
ing place. The impossibility of regaining 
the station at the Summit was admitted ; the 
way down the mountain to the next settle- 
ment was still left to them, or the adjacent 
woods, if they wished for an encampment. 
The ostler once more assumed authority. 

" 'Skuse me, gentlemen, but them horses 
don't take no pasecer down the mountain to- 
night. The stage-road ain't a mile off, and 
I kalkilate to wait here till the up stage 
comes. She 's bound to stop on account of 
the snow ; and I 've done my dooty when I 
hand the horses over to the driver." 

" But if she hears of the block up yer, 
and waits at the lower station ? " said Raw- 
lins. 

" Then I 've done my dooty all the same. 
'Skuse me, gentlemen, but them ez hez their 
own horses kin do ez they like." 

As this clearly pointed to Hale, he briefly 



106 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

assured his companions that he had no in- 
tention of deserting them. " If I cannot 
reach Eagle's Court, I shall at least keep as 
near it as possible. I suppose any messen- 
ger from my house to the Summit will learn 
where I am and why I am delayed ? " 

" Messenger from your house ! " gasped 
Eawlins. " Are you crazy, stranger ? Only 
a bird would get outer Eagle's now ; and it 
would hev to be an eagle at that ! Between 
your house and the Summit the snow must 
be fcen feet by this time, to say nothing of 
the drift in the pass." 

Hale felt it was the truth. At any other 
time he would have worried over this unex- 
pected situation, and utter violation of all 
his traditions. He was past that now, and 
even felt a certain relief. He knew his fam- 
ily were safe ; it was enough. That they 
were locked up securely, and incapable of 
interfering with 7^^m, seemed to enhance his 
new, half-conscious, half-shy enjoyment of 
an adventurous existence. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 107 

The ostler, who had been apparently lost 
in contemplation of the steep trail he had 
just descended, suddenly clapped his hand 
to his leg with an ejaculation of gratified as- 
tonishment. 

" Waal, darn my skin ef that ain't Hen- 
nicker's ' slide ' all the time ! I heard it was 
somewhat about here." 

Kawlins briefly explained to Hale that a 
slide was a rude incline for the transit of 
heavy goods that could not be carried down 
a trail. 

" And Hennicker's," continued the man, 
"ain't more nor a mile away. Ye might 
try Hennicker's at a push, eh ? " 

By a common instinct the whole party 
looked dubiously at Hale. " Who 's Hen- 
nicker? " he felt compelled to ask. 

The ostler hesitated, and glanced at the 
others to reply. " There are folks," he said 
lazily, at last, " ez beleeves that Hennicker 
ain't much better nor the crowd we 're hunt- 
ing ; but they don't say it to Hennicker. 
We need n't let on what we 're after." 



108 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" I for one," said Hale stoutly, " decidedly 
object to any concealment of our purpose." 

" It don't follow," said Rawlins carelessly, 
" Hennicker even knows of this yer 

robbery. It 's bis gineral gait we refer to. 
Ef yer think it more polite, and it makes it 
more sociable to discuss this matter afore 
him, I 'm agreed." 

" Hale means," said Clinch, " that it 
would n't be on the square to take and make 
use of any points we might pick up there 
agin the road agents." 

" Certainly," said Hale. It was not at all 
what he had meant, but he felt singularly 
relieved at the compromise. 

" And ez I reckon Hennicker ain't such a 
fool ez not to know who we are and what 
we 're out for," continued Clinch, " I reckon 
there ain't any concealment." 

" Then it 's Hennicker's ? " said the ostler, 
with swift deduction. 

" Hennicker it is ! Lead on." 

The ostler remounted his horse, and the 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 109 

others followed. The trail presently turned 
into a broader track, that bore some signs of 
approaching habitations, and at the end of 
five minutes they came upon a clearing. It 
was part of one of the fragmentary moun- 
tain terraces, and formed by itself a vast 
niche, or bracketed shelf, in the hollow flank 
of the mountain that, to Hale's first glance, 
bore a rude resemblance to Eagle's Court. 
But there was neither meadow nor open field ; 
the few acres of ground had been wrested 
from the forest by axe and fire, and un- 
sightly stumps everywhere marked the rude 
and difficult attempts at cultivation. Two 
or three rough buildings of unplaned and 
unpainted boards, connected by rambling 
sheds, stood in the centre of the amphi- 
theatre. Far from being protected by the 
encircling rampart, it seemed to be the se- 
lected arena for the combating elements. A 
whirlwind from the outer abyss continually 
filled this cave of jEoIus with driving snow, 
which, however, melted as it fell, or was 
quickly whirled away again. 



110 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

A few dogs barked and ran out to meet 
the cavalcade, but there was no other sign of 
any life disturbed or concerned at their ap- 
proach. 

" I reckon Hennicker ain't home, or he 'd 
hev been on the lookout afore this," said the 
ostler, dismounting and rapping at the door. 

After a silence, a female voice, unintel- 
ligibly to the others, apparently had some 
colloquy with the ostler, who returned to the 
party. 

" Must go in through the kitchin — can't 
open the door for the wind." 

Leaving their horses in the shed, they en- 
tered the kitchen, which communicated, and 
presently came uj)on *a square room filled 
with smoke from a fire of green pine logs. 
The doors and windows were tightly fas- 
tened ; the only air came in through the large- 
throated chimney in voluminous gusts, which 
seemed to make the hollow shell of the apart- 
ment swell and expand to the j)oint of burst- 
ing. Despite the stinging of the resinous 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. HI 

smoke, the temperature was grateful to the 
benumbed travellers. Several cushionless 
arm-chairs, such as were used in bar-rooms, 
two tables, a sideboard, half bar and half 
cupboard, and a rocking-chair comprised the 
furniture, and a few bear and buffalo skins 
covered the floor. Hale sank into one of the 
arm-chairs, and, with a lazy satisfaction, 
partly born of his fatigue and partly from 
some newly-discovered appreciative faculty, 
gazed around the room, and then at the mis- 
tress of the house, with whom the others 
were talking. 

She was tall, gaunt, and withered ; in spite 
of her evident years, her twisted hair was still 
dark and full, and her eyes bright and pierc- 
ing ; her complexion and teeth had long since 
succumbed to the vitiating effects of frontier 
cookery, and her lips were stained with the 
yellow juice of a brier-wood pipe she held in 
her mouth. The ostler had explained their 
intrusion, and veiled their character under 
the vague epithet of a " hunting party," and 



112 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

was now evidently describing them person- 
ally. In his new-found philosophy the fact 
that the interest of his hostess seemed to be 
excited only by the names of his companions, 
that he himself was carelessly, and even dep- 
recatingly, alluded to as the " stranger from 
Eagle's " by the ostler, and completely over- 
looked by the old woman, gave him no con- 
cern. 

" You '11 have to talk to Zenobia yourself. 
Dod rot ef I 'm gine to interfere. She knows 
Hennicker's ways, and if she chooses to take 
in transients it ain't no funeral o' mine. 
Zeenie ! You, Zeenie ! Look yer ! " 

A tall, lazy-looking, handsome girl ap- 
peared on the threshold of the next room, 
and with a hand on each door-post slowly 
swung herself backwards and forwards, with- 
out entering. " Well, Maw ? " 

The old woman briefly and unalluringly 
pictured the condition of the travellers. 

" Paw ain't here," began the girl doubt- 
fully, " and — How dy, Dick ! is that 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 113 

you ? " The interruption was caused by her 
recognition of the ostler, and she lounged 
into the room. In spite of a skimp, slat- 
ternly gown, whose straight skirt clung to 
her lower limbs, there was a quaint, nymph- 
like contour to her figure. Whether from 
languor, ill-health, or more probably from a 
morbid consciousness of her own heiacht, she 
moved with a slightly affected stoop that had 
become a habit. It did not seem ungrace- 
ful to Hale, already attracted by her deli- 
cate profile, her large dark eyes, and a cer- 
tain weird resemblance she had to some half- 
domesticated dryad. 

" That '11 do, Maw," she said, dismissing 
her parent with a nod. " I '11 talk to Dick." 

As the door closed on the old woman, Ze- 
nobia leaned her hands on the back of a 
chair, and confronted the admiring eyes of 
Dick with a goddess-like indifference. 

" Now wot 's the use of your playin' this 
yer game on me, Dick? Wot 's the good of 
your ladlin' out that hog-wash about huntin' ? 



114 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

Huntin I I '11 tell yer the huntin' you-uns 
hev been at ! You 've been huntin' George 
Lee and his boys since an hour before sun 
up. You 've been followin' a blind trail up 
to the Ridge, until the snow got up and 
hunted ijoii right here ! You 've been whoop- 
in' and yellin' and circus-ridin' on the roads 
like ez yer wos Comanches, and frightening 
all the women folk within miles — that 's 
your huntin' ! You 've been climbin' down 
Paw's old slide at last, and makin' tracks 
for here to save the skins of them condemned 
government horses of the Kempany ! And 
that 's your huntin' 1 " 

To Hale's surprise, a burst of laughter 
from the party followed this speech. He 
tried to join in, but this ridiculous summary 
of the result of his enthusiastic sense of duty 
left him — the only earnest believer — mor- 
tified and embarrassed. Nor was he the less 
concerned as he found the girl's dark eyes 
had rested once or twice upon him curiously. 

Zenobia laughed too, and, lazily turning 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 115 

the chair around, dropped into it. "And 
by this time George Lee 's loungin' back in 
his chyar and smokin' his cigyar somewhar 
in Sacramento," she added, stretching her 
feet out to the fire, and suiting the action to 
the word with an imaginary cigar between 
the lono' finoers of a thin and not over-clean 
hand. 

" We cave, Zeenie ! " said Rawlins, when 
their hilarity had subsided to a more sub- 
dued and scarcely less flattering admiration 
of the unconcerned goddess before them. 
" That 's about the size of it. You kin rake 
down the pile. I forgot you 're an old friend, 
of George's." 

" He 's a white man ! " said the girl de- 
cidedly. 

"Ye used to know him?" continued 
Rawlins. 

"Once. Paw ain't in that line now," 
she said simply. 

There was such a sublime unconsciousness 
of any moral degradation involved in this 



116 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 

allusion that even Hale accepted it without 
a shock. She rose presently, and, going to 
the little sideboard, brought out a number 
of glasses ; these she handed to each of the 
party, and then, producing a demijohn of 
whiskey, slung it dexterously and gracefully 
over her arm, so that it rested on her elbow 
like a cradle, and, going to each one in suc- 
cession, filled their glasses. It obliged each 
one to rise to accept the libation, and as 
Hale did so in his turn he met the dark eyes 
of the girl full on his own. There was a 
pleased curiosity in her glance that made 
this married man of thirty-five color as awk- 
wardly as a boy. 

The tender of refreshment being under- 
stood as a tacit recognition of their claims 
to a larger hospitality, all further restraint 
was removed. Zenobia resumed her seat, 
and placing her elbow on the arm of her 
chair, and her small round chin in her hand, 
looked thoughtfully in the fire. " When 1 
say George Lee 's a white man, it ain't be- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 117 

cause I know him. It's his general gait. 
Wot 's he ever done that 's underhanded or 
mean ? Nothin' ! You kant show the poor 
man he 's ever took a picayune from. When 
he 's helped himself to a pile it 's been outer 
them banks or them express companies, that 
think it mighty fine to bust up themselves, 
and swindle the poor folks o' their last cent, 
and nobody talks o' huntin' them! And 
does he keep their money ? No ; he passes 
it round among the boys that help him, and 
they put it in circulation. He don't keep 
it for himself ; he ain't got fine houses in 
Frisco ; he don't keep fast horses for show. 
Like ez not the critter he did that job with 
— ef it was him — none of you boys would 
have rid ! And he takes all the risks him- 
self ; you ken bet your life that every man 
with him was safe and away afore he turned 
his back on you-uns." 

" He certainly drops a little of his money 
at draw poker, Zeenie," said Clinch, laugh- 
ing. "He lost five thousand dollars to 

o 

Sheriff Kelly last week." 



118 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" Well, I don't hear of the sheriff huntm' 
him to give it back, nor do I reckon Kelly 
handed it over to the Express it was taken 
from. I heard you won suthin' from him a 
spell ago. I reckon you 've been huntin' 
him to find out whar you should return it." 
The laugh was clearly against Clinch. He 
was about to make some rallying rejoinder 
when the young girl suddenly interrupted 
him. " Ef you 're wantin' to hunt somebody, 
why don't you take higher game ? Thar 's 
that Jim Harkins : go for him, and I '11 
join you." 

" Harkins ! " exclaimed Clinch and Hale 
simultaneously. 

" Yes, Jim Harkins ; do you know him? " 
she said, glancing from the one to the other. 

"One of my friends do," said Clinch 
laughing ; " but don't let that stop you." 

"And you — over there," continued Ze- 
nobia, bending her head and eyes towards 
Hale. 

" The fact is — I believe he was my 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 119 

banker," said Hale, with a smile. " I don't 
know him personally." 

" Then you 'd better hunt him before he 
does you." 

" What 's he done, Zeenie ? " asked Raw- 
lins, keenly enjoying the discomfiture of the 
others. 

"What ? " She stopped, threw her long 
black braids over her shoulder, clasped her 
knee with her hands, and rocking backwards 
and forwards, sublimely unconscious of the 
apparition of a slim ankle and half-dropped- 
off slipj)er from under her shortened gown, 
continued, " It might n't please him^^ she 
said slyly, nodding towards Hale. 

" Pray don't mind me," said Hale, with 
unnecessary eagerness. 

" Well," said Zenobia, " I reckon you 
all know Ned Falkner and the Excelsior 
Ditch ? " 

" Yes, Falkner 's the superintendent of 
it," said Rawlins. " And a square man too. 
Thar ain't anything mean about him." 



120 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" Shake," said Zenobia, extendinsr lier 
hand. Rawlins shook the proffered hand 
with eager spontaneousness, and the girl 
resumed : " He 's about ez good ez they 
make 'em — you bet. Well, you know Ned 
has put all his money, and all his strength, 
and all his sahe^ and " — 

" His good looks," added Clinch mis- 
chievously. 

"Into that Ditch," continued Zenobia, 
ignoring the interruption. " It 's his mother, 
it 's his sweetheart, it 's his everything ! 
When other chaps of his age was cavortin' 
round Frisco, and havin' high jinks, Ned 
was in his Ditch. ' Wait till the Ditch is 
done,' he used to say. ' Wait till she be- 
gins to boom, and then you just stand round.' 
Mor'n that, he got all the boys to put in 
their last cent — for they loved Ned, and 
love him now, like ez ef he wos a woman." 

"That 's so," said Clinch and Rawlins 
simultaneously, " and he 's worth it." 

"Well," continued Zenobia, "the Ditch 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 121 

did n't boom ez soon ez they kalkilated. 
And then the boys kept gettin' poorer and 
poorer, and Ned he kept gettin' poorer and 
poorer in everything but his hopef uhiess and 
grit. Then he looks around for more cap- 
ital. And about this time, that coyote Har- 
kins smelt suthin' nice up there, and he gits 
Ned to give him control of it, and he '11 lend 
him his name and fix up a company. Soon 
ez he gets control, the first thing he does is 
to say that it wants half a million o' money 
to make it pay, and levies an assessment 
of two hundred dollars a share. That 's 
nothin' for them rich fellows to pay, or pre- 
tend to pay, but for boys on grub wages it 
meant only ruin. They could n't pay, and 
had to forfeit their shares for next to noth- 
ing. And Ned made one more desperate at- 
tempt to save them and himself by borrow- 
ing money on his shares ; when that hound 
Harkins got wind of it, and let it be buzzed 
around that the Ditch is a failure, and that 
he was goin' out of it ; that brought the 



122 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 

shares down to nothing. As Ned could n't 
raise a dollar, the new company swooped 
down on his shares for the debts they had 
put up, and left him and the boys to help 
themselves. Ned could n't bear to face the 
boys that he 'd helped to ruin, and put out, 
and ain't been heard from since. After 
Harkins had got rid of Ned and the boys he 
manages to pay off that wonderful debt, and 
sells out for a hundred thousand dollars. 
That money — Ned's money — he sends to 
Sacramento, for he don't dare to travel with 
it himself, and is kalkilatin' to leave the ken- 
try, for some of the boys allow to kill him on 
sight. So ef you *re wantin' to hunt suthin', 
thar 's yer chance, and you need n't go inter 
the snow to do it." 

"But surely the law can recover this 
money ? " said Hale indignantly. " It is as 
infamous a robbery as " — He stopped as 
he caught Zenobia's eye. 

" Ez last night's, you were goin' to say. 
I '11 call it more. Them road agents don't 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 123 

pretend to be your friend — but take yer 
money and run their risks. For ez to the 
law — that can't help yer." 

" It 's a skin game, and you might ez well 
expect to recover a gambling debt from a 
short card sharp," explained Clinch ; " Falk- 
ner oughter shot him on sight." 

" Or the boys lynched him," suggested 
Rawlins. 

" I think," said Hale, more reflectively, 
" that in the absence of legal remedy a man 
of that kind should have been forced under 
strong physical menace to give up his ill- 
gotten gains. The money was the primary 
object, and if that could be got without blood- 
shed — which seems to me a useless crime — 
it would be quite as effective. Of course, if 
there was resistance or retaliation, it misrht 
be necessary to kill him." 

He had unconsciously fallen into his old 
didactic and dogmatic habit of speech, and 
perhaps, under the spur of Zenobia's eyes, 
he had given it some natural emphasis. A 



124: SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

dead silence followed, in which the others re- 
garded him with amused and gratified sur- 
prise, and it was broken only by Zenobia 
rising and holding out her hand. " Shake ' " 

Hale raised it gallantly, and pressed his 
lips on the one spotless finger. 

" That 's gospel truth. And you ain't the 
first white man to say it." 

" Indeed," laughed Hale. " Who was the 
other?" 

" George Lee ! " 



CHAPTER VI. 

The laughter that followed was inter- 
rupted by a sudden barking of the dogs in 
the outer clearing. Zenobia rose lazily and 
strode to the window. It relieved Hale of 
certain embarrassing reflections suggested 
by her comment. 

" Ef it ain't that God-forsaken fool Dick 
bringing up passengers from the snow-bound 
up stage in the road ! I reckon / 've got 
suthin' to say to that ! " But the later ap- 
pearance of the apologetic Dick, with the as- 
surance that the party carried a permission 
from her father, granted at the lower station 
in view of such an emergency, checked her 
active opposition. " That 's like Paw," she 
soliloquized aggrievedly ; " shuttin' us up 
and settin' dogs on everybody for a week, 
and then lettin' the whole stage service pass 



126 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

through one door and out at another. Well, 
it 's his house and his whiskey, and they 
kin take it, but they don't get me to help 
'em." 

They certainly were not a prepossessing or 
good-natured acquisition to the party. Apart 
from the natural antagonism which, on such 
occasions, those in possession always feel to- 
wards the new-comer, they were strongly in- 
clined to resist the dissatisfied querulousness 
and aggressive attitude of these fresh ap- 
plicants for hospitality. The most offensive 
one was a person who appeared to exercise 
some authority over the others. He was 
loud, assuming, and dressed with vulgar pre- 
tension. He quickly disposed himself in 
the chair vacated by Zenobia, and called for 
some liquor. 

" I reckon you '11 hev to help yourself," 
said Rawlins dryly, as the summons met 
with no response. " There are only two wo- 
men in the house, and I reckon their hands 
are full already." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 127 

" I call it d — d uncivil treatment," said 
the man, raising his voice ; " and Hennicker 
had better sing smaller if he don't want his 
old den pulled down some day. He ain't 
any better than men that hev been picked 
up afore now." 

" You oughter told him that, and mebbe 
he 'd hev come over with yer," returned Raw- 
lins. " He 's a mild, soft, easy-going man, 
is Hennicker! Ain't he, Colonel Clinch?" 

The casual mention of Clinch's name pro- 
duced the effect which the speaker probably 
intended. The stranger stared at Clinch, 
who, apparently oblivious of the conversa- 
tion, was blinking his cold gray eyes at the 
fire. Dropping his aggressive tone to mere 
querulousness, the man sought the whiskey 
demijohn, and helped himself and his com- 
panions. Fortified by liquor he returned to 
the fire. 

" I reckon you 've heard about this jqy rob- 
bery, Colonel," he said, addressing Clinch, 
with an attempt at easy familiarity. 



128 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

Without raising his eyes from the fire, 
Clinch briefly assented, " I reckon." 

" I 'm up yer, examining into it, for tho 
Express." 

" Lost much ? " asked Eawlins. 

" Not so much ez they might hev. That 
fool Harkins had a hundred thousand dol- 
lars in greenbacks sealed up like an ordinary 
package of a thousand dollars, and gave it 
to a friend, Bill Guthrie, in the bank to pick 
out some unlikely chap among the passen- 
gers to take charge of it to Reno. He 
would n't trust the Express. Ha ! ha ! " 

The dead, oppressive silence that followed 
his empty laughter made it seem almost arti- 
ficial. Rawlins held his breath and looked 
at Clinch. Hale, with the instincts of a re- 
fined, sensitive man, turned hot with the em- 
barrassment Clinch should have shown. For 
that gentleman, without lifting his eyes from 
the fire, and with no apparent change in his 
demeanor, lazily asked — 

" Ye did n't ketch the name o' that pas- 
senger ? " 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 129 

" Naturally, no ! For when Gutlirle hears 
what was said agin him he would n't give 
his name until he heard from him." 

" And what was said agin him ? " asked 
Clinch musingly. 

" What would be said agin a man that 
give up that sum o' money, like a chaw of 
tobacco, for the asking ? Why, there were 
but three men, as far ez we kin hear, that 
did the job. And there were four passen- 
gers inside, armed, and the driver and ex- 
press messenger on the box. Six were robbed 
by three ! — they were a sweet-scented lot ! 
Reckon they must hev felt mighty small, for 
I hear they got up and skedaddled from the 
station under the pretext of lookin' for the 
robbers." He laughed again, and the laugh 
was noisily repeated by his five companions 
at the other end of the room. 

Hale, who had forgotten that the stranger 
was only echoing a part of his own criticism 
of eight hours before, was on the point of 
rising with burning cheeks and angry in- 



130 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

dignation, when the lazily uplifted eye of 
Clinch caught his, and absolutely held him 
down with its paralyzing and deadly signif- 
icance. Murder itself seemed to look from 
those cruelly quiet and remorseless gray 
pupils. For a moment he forgot his own 
rage in this glimpse of Clinch's implacable 
resentment ; for a moment he felt a thrill of 
pity for the wretch who had provoked it. 
He remained motionless and fascinated in 
his chair as the lazy lids closed like a sheath 
over Clinch's eyes again. Rawlins, who had 
probably received the same glance of warn- 
ing, remained equally still. 
• " They have n't heard the last of it yet, 
you bet," continued the infatuated stranger. 
"I 've got a little statement here for the 
newspaper," he added, drawing some papers 
from his pocket ; " suthin' I just run off in 
the coach as I came along. I reckon it '11 
show things up in a new light. It 's time 
there should be some change. All the cussin' 
that 's been usually done hez been by the 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 131 

passengers agin the express and stage com- 
panies. T propose that the Company should 
do a little cussin' themselves. See ? P'r'aps 
you don't mind my readin' it to ye ? It 's 
just spicy enough to suit them newspaper 
chaps." 

" Go on," said Colonel Clinch quietly. 

The man cleared his throat, with the pre- 
liminary pose of authorship, and his five 
friends, to whom the composition was evi- 
dently not unfamiliar, assumed anticipatory 
smiles. 

"I call it 'Prize Pusillanimous Passen- 
gers.' Sort of runs easy off the tongue, you 
know. 

" ' It now appears that the success of the 
late stage-coach robbery near the Summit 
was largely due to the pusillanimity — not to 
use a more serious word ' " — He stopped, 
and looked explanatorily towards Clinch : 
" Ye '11 see in a minit what I 'm gettin' at 
by that pusillanimity of the passengers them- 
selves. ' it now transpires that there were 



132 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

only three robbers who attacked the coach, 
and that although passengers, driver, and 
express messenger were fully armed, and 
were double the number of their assailants, 
not a shot was fired. We mean no reflec- 
tions upon the well-known courage of Yuba 
Bill, nor the experience and coolness of 
Bracy Tibbetts, the courteous express mes- 
senger, both of whom have since confessed 
to have been more than astonished at the 
Christian and lamb-like submission of the 
insiders. Amusing stories of some laugh- 
able yet sickening incidents of the occasion 
— such as grown men kneeling in the road, 
and offering to strip themselves completely, 
if their lives were only spared ; of one of 
the passengers hiding under the seat, and 
only being dislodged by pulling his coat- 
tails ; of incredible sums promised, and even 
offers of menial service, for the preserva- 
tion of their wretched carcases — are re- 
ceived with the greatest gusto ; but we are 
in possession of facts which may lead to 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 133 

more serious accusations. Although one of 
the passengers is said to have lost a large 
sum of money intrusted to him, while at- 
tempting with barefaced effrontery to es- 
tablish a rival " carrying " business in one 
of the Express Company's own coaches ' — 
I call that a good point." He interrupted 
himself to allow the unrestrained applause 
of his own party. '^ Don't you ? " 

" It 's just h — 11," said Clinch musingly. 

" ' Yet the affair,' " resumed the stranger, 
from his manuscript, " ' is locked up in great 
and suspicious mystery. The presence of 
Jackson N. Stanner, Esq.' (that 's me), 
'special detective agent to the Company, 
and his staff in town, is a guaranty that the 
mystery will be thoroughly probed.' Hed to 
put that in to please the Company," he 
again deprecatingiy explained. '* ' We are 
indebted to this gentleman for the facts.' " 

" The pint you want to make in that ar- 
ticle," said Clinch, rising, but still directing 
his face and his conversation to the fire, " ez 



134 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

far ez I ken see ez that no three men kin 
back clown six unless they be cowards, or 
are willing to be backed down." 

" That 's the point what I start from," 
rejoined Stanner, " and work up. I leave 
it to you ef it ain't so." 

'' I can't say ez I agree with you," said 
the Colonel dryly. He turned, and still 
without lifting his eyes walked towards the 
door of the room which Zenobia had en- 
tered. The key was on the inside, but 
Clinch gently opened the door, removed the 
key, and closing the door again locked it 
from his side. Hale and Rawlins felt their 
hearts beat quickly ; the others followed 
Clinch's slow movements and downcast mien 
with amused curiosity. After locking the 
other outlet from the room, and putting the 
keys in his pocket. Clinch returned to the 
fire. For the first time he lifted his eyes ; 
the man nearest him shrank back in terror. 

" I am the man," he said slowly, taking 
deliberate breath between his sentences, 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 135 

" who gave up those greenbacks to the rob- 
bers. I am one of the three passengers you 
have lampooned in that paper, and these gen- 
tlemen beside me are the other two/' He 
stopped and looked around him. "You 
don't believe that three men can back down 
six! Well, I '11 show you how it can be 
done. More than that, I '11 show you how 
ONE man can do it ; for, by the living 
G — d, if you don't hand over that paper 
1 '11 kill you where you sit ! I '11 give you 
until I count ten ; if one of you moves he 
and you are dead men — but you first ! " 

Before he had finished speaking Hale and 
Rawlins had both risen, as if in concert, 
with their weapons drawn. Hale could not 
tell how or why he had done so, but he was 
equally conscious, without knowing why, of 
fixing his eye on one of the other party, and 
that he should, in the event of an affray, try 
to kill him. He did not attempt to reason ; 
he only knew that he should do his best to 
kill that man and perhaps others. 



136 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" One," said Clinch, lifting liis derringer, 
" two — three " — 

" Look here, Colonel — I swear I did n't 
know it was you. Come — d — m it ! I say 
— see here," stammered S tanner, with white 
cheeks, not daring to glance for aid to his 
stupefied party. 

" Four — five — six " — 

" Wait ! Here ! " He produced the paper 
and threw it on the floor. 

" Pick it up and hand it to me. Seven — 
eight " — 

S tanner hastily scrambled to his feet, 
picked up the paper, and handed it to the 
Colonel. " I was only joking, Colonel," he 
said, with a forced laugh. 

" I 'm glad to hear it. But as this joke 
is in black and white, you would n't mind 
saying so in the same fashion. Take that 
pen and ink and write as I dictate. ' T cer- 
tify that I am satisfied that the above state- 
ment is a base calumny against the charac- 
ters of Ringwood Clinch, Robert Rawlins, 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 137 

and John Hale, passengers, and that I do 
hereby apologize to the same.' Sign it. 
That '11 do. Now let the rest of your party 
sign as witnesses." 

They complied without hesitation ; some, 
seizing the opportunity of treating the affair 
as a joke, suggested a drink. 

" Excuse me," said Clinch quietly, " but 
ez this house ain't big enough for me and 
that man, and ez I 've got business at Wild 
Cat Station with this paper, I think I '11 go 
without drinkin'." He took the keys from 
his pocket, unlocked the doors, and taking 
up his overcoat and rifle turned as if to go. 

Rawlins rose to follow him ; Hale alone 
hesitated. The rapid occurrences of the last 
half hour gave him no time for reflection. 
But he was by no means satisfied of the le- 
gality of the last act he had aided and abet- 
ted, although he admitted its rude justice, 
and felt he would have done so again. A 
fear of this, and an instinct that he might 
be led into further complications if he con- 



138 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

tinued to identify himself with Clinch and 
Rawlins ; the fact that they had professedly 
abandoned their quest, and that it was really 
supplanted by the presence of an authorized 
party whom they had already come in con- 
flict with — all this urged him to remain be- 
hind. On the other hand, the apparent de- 
sertion of his comrades at the last moment 
was opposed both to his sense of honor and 
the liking he had taken to them. But he 
reflected that he had already shown his ac- 
tive partisanship, that he could be of little 
service to them at Wild Cat Station, and 
would be only increasing the distance from 
his home ; and above all, an impatient long- 
ing for independent action finally decided 
him. " I think I will stay here," he said to 
Clinch, " unless you want me." 

Clinch cast a swift and meaning glance 
at the enemy, but looked approval. " Keep 
your eyes skinned, and you 're good for a 
dozen of 'em," he said, sotto voce, and then 
turned to Stanner. " I 'm going to take 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 139 

this paper to Wild Cat. If you want to 
communicate with me hereafter you know 
where I am to be found, unless " — he smiled 
grimly — " you 'd like to see me outside for 
a few minutes before I go ? " 

" It is a matter that concerns the Stage 
Company, not me," said S tanner, with an 
attempt to appear at his ease. 

Hale accompanied Clinch and Rawlins 
through the kitchen to the stables. The 
ostler, Dick, had already returned to the 
rescue of the snow-bound coach. 

" I should n't like to leave many men 
alone with that crowd," said Clinch, press- 
ing Hale's hand ; " and I would n't have al- 
lowed your staying behind ef I did n't know 
I could bet my pile on you. Your offerin' 
to stay just puts a clean finish on it. Look 
yer. Hale, I did n't cotton much to you at 
first ; but ef you ever want a friend, call on 
Kingwood Clinch." 

" The same here, old man," said Rawlins, 
extending his hand as he appeared from a 



140 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

hurried conference with the old woman at 
the woodshed, " and trust to Zeenie to give 
you a hint ef there 's any thin' underhanded 
goin' on. So long." 

Half inclined to resent this implied sug- 
gestion of protection, yet half pleased at the 
idea of a confidence with the handsome girl 
he had seen, Hale returned to the room. A 
whispered discussion among the party ceased 
on his entering, and an awkward silence fol- 
lowed, which Hale did not attempt to break 
as he quietly took his seat again by the fire. 
He was presently confronted by Stanner, 
who with an affectation of easy familiarity 
crossed over to the hearth. 

" The old Kernel 's d — d peppery and high 
toned when he 's got a little more than his 
reg'lar three fingers o' corn juice, eh? " 

" I must beg you to understand distinctly, 
Mr. Stanner," said Hale, with a return of 
his habitual precision of statement, " that I 
regard any slighting allusion to the gentle- 
man who has just left not only as in exceed- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 141 

ingly bad taste coming from you^ but very 
offensive to myself. If you mean to imply 
that be was under the influence of liquor, it 
is my duty to undeceive you ; he was so per- 
fectly in possession of his faculties as to ex- 
press not only his own but my opinion of 
your conduct. You must also admit that he 
was discriminating enough to show his ob- 
jection to your company by leaving it. I re- 
gret that circumstances do not make it con- 
venient for me to exercise that privilege ; 
but if I am obliged to put up with your 
presence in this room, I strongly insist that 
it is not made unendurable with the addition 
of your conversation." 

The effect of this deliberate and passion- 
less declaration was more discomposing to 
the party than Clinch's fury. Utterly unac- 
customed to the ideas and language suddenly 
confronting them, they were unable to deter- 
mine whether it was the real expression of 
the speaker, or whether it was a vague badi- 
nage or affectation to which any reply would 



142 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. ^ 

involve them in ridicule. In a country ter- 
rorized by practical joking, they did not 
doubt but that this was a new form of hoax- 
ing calculated to provoke some response that 
would constitute them as victims. The im- 
mediate effect upon them was that com- 
plete silence in regard to himself that Hale 
desired. They drew together again and con- 
versed in whispers, while Hale, with his eyes 
fixed on the fire, gave himself up to some- 
what late and useless reflection. 

He could scarcely realize his position. 
For however he might look at it, within a 
space of twelve hours he had not only 
changed some of his most cherished opin- 
ions, but he had acted in accordance with 
that change in a way that made it seem al- 
most impossible for him ever to recant. In 
the interests of law and order he had en- 
gaged in an unlawful and disorderly pur- 
suit of criminals, and had actually come in 
conflict not with the criminals, but with the 
only party apparently authorized to pursue 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 143 

them. More than that, he was finding him- 
self committed to a certain sympathy with 
the criminals. Twenty-four hours ago, if 
any one had told him that he would have 
condoned an illegal act for its abstract jus- 
tice, or assisted to commit an illegal act for 
the same purpose, he would have felt him- 
self insulted. That he knew he would not 
now feel it as an insult perplexed him still 
more. In these circumstances the fact that 
he was separated from his family, and as it 
were from all his past life and traditions, 
by a chance accident, did not disturb him 
greatly ; indeed, he was for the first time a 
little doubtful of their probable criticism on 
his inconsistency, and was by no means in a 
hurry to subject himself to it. 

Lifting his eyes, he was suddenly aware 
that the door leading to the kitchen was 
slowly opening. He had thought he heard 
it creak once or twice during his deliberate 
reply to Stanner. It was evidently moving 
now so as to attract his attention, without 



144 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

disturbing the others. It presently opened 
sufficiently wide to show the face of Zeenie, 
who, with a gesture of caution towa^rds his 
companions, beckoned him to join her. He 
rose carelessly as if going out, and, putting 
on his hat, entered the kitchen as the re- 
treating figure of the young girl glided 
lightly towards the stables. She ascended a 
few open steps as if to a hay-loft, but stopped 
before a low door. Pushing it open, she 
preceded him into a small room, apparently 
under the roof, which scarcely allowed her 
to stand upright. By the light of a stable 
lantern hanging from a beam he saw that, 
though poorly furnished, it bore some evi- 
dence of feminine taste and habitation. 
Motioning to the only chair, she seated her- 
self on the edge of the bed, with her hands 
clasping her knees in her familiar attitude. 
Her face bore traces of recent agitation, and 
her eyes were shining with tears. By the 
closer light of the lantern he was surprised 
to find it was from laughter. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 145 

" I reckoned you 'd be right lonely down 
there with that Stanner crowd, particklerly 
after that little speech o' your'n, so I sez to 
Maw I 'd get you up yer for a spell. Maw 
and I heerd you exhort 'em ! Maw allowed 
you woz talkin' a furrin' tongue all along, 
but I — sakes alive ! — I hed to hump my- 
self to keep from bustin' into a yell when 
yer jist d rawed them Webster-unabridged 
sentences on 'em." She stopped and rocked 
backwards and forwards with a laugh that, 
subdued by the proximity of the roof and 
the fear of being overheard, was by no 
means unmusical. " I '11 tell ye whot got 
me, though ! That part commencing, ' Suck- 
amstances over which I 've no controul.' " 

" Oh, come ! I did n't say that," inter- 
rupted Hale, laughing. 

" ' Don't make it convenient for me to ex- 
ercise the privilege of kicldn' yer out to that 
extent,' " she continued ; " ' but if I cannot 
dispense with your room, the least I can say 
is that it 's a d — d sio^ht better than vour 



146 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

company ' — or suthin' like that ! And then 
the way you minded your stops, and let your 
voice rise and fall just ez easy ez if you wos 
a First Reader in large type. Why, the 
Kernel was n't nowhere. His cussin' did n't 
come within a mile o' yourn. That S tanner 
jist turned yaller." 

" I 'm afraid you are laughing at me," 
said Hale, not knowing whether to be 
pleased or vexed at the girl's amusement. 

" I reckon I 'm the only one that dare do 
it, then," said the girl, simply. " The Ker- 
nel sez the way you turned round after he 'd 
done his cussin', and said yer believed you 'd 
stay and take the responsibility of the whole 
thing — and did in that kam, soft, did-any- 
body-speak-to-me style — was the neatest 
thing he 'd seen yet ! No ! Maw says I ain't 
much on manners, but I know a man when 
I see him." 

For an instant Hale gave himself up to 
the delicious flattery of unexpected, unin- 
tended, and apparently uninterested compli- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 147 

ment. Becoming at last a little embarrassed 
under the frank curiosity of the girFs dark 
eyes, he changed the subject. 

" Do you always come up here through 
the stables ? " he asked, glancing round the 
room, which was evidently her own. 

" I reckon," she answered half abstract- 
edly. " There 's a ladder down thar to 
Maw's room" — pointing to a trap-door be- 
side the broad chimney that served as a 
wall — " but it 's handier the other way, and 
nearer the bosses ef you want to get away 
quick." 

This palpable suggestion — borne out by 
what he remembered of the other domestic 
details — that the house had been planned 
with reference to sudden foray or escape 
reawakened his former uneasy reflections. 
Zeenie, who had been watching his face, 
added, " It 's no slouch, when b'ar or pain- 
ters hang round nights and stampede the 
stock, to be able to swing yourself on to a 
boss whenever you hear a row goin' on out- 
side." 



148 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" Do you mean that you " — 

" Paw used., and I do now^ sense I Ve 
come into tlie room." She pointed to a non- 
descript garment, half cloak, half habit, 
hanging on the wall. " I 've been outer bed 
and on Pitchpine's back as far ez the trail 
five minutes arter I heard the first bellow." 

Hale regarded her with undisguised as- 
tonishment. There was nothing at all Ama- 
zonian or horsey in her manners, nor was 
there even the robust physical contour that 
might have been developed through such 
experiences. On the contrary, she seemed 
to be lazily effeminate in body and mind. 
Heedless of his critical survey of her, she 
beckoned him to draw his chair nearer, and, 
looking into his eyes, said — 

" Whatever possessed you to take to hunt- 
in' men ? " 

Hale was staggered by the question, but 
nevertheless endeavored to explain. But he 
was surprised to find that his explanation 
appeared stilted even to himself, and, he 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 149 

could not doubt, was utterly incomprehensi- 
ble to the girl. She nodded her head, how- 
ever, and continued — 

" Then you have n't anythin' agin' 
George ? " 

" I don't know George," said Hale, smil- 
ing. " My proceeding was against the high- 
wayman." 

" Well, he was the highwayman." 

" I mean, it was the principle I objected 
to — a principle that I consider highly dan- 
gerous." 

'' Well, he is the principal, for the others 
only helped^ I reckon," said Zeenie with a 
sigh, " and I reckon he is dangerous." 

Hale saw it was useless to explain. The 
giri continued — 

" What made you stay here instead of go- 
ing on with the Kernel ? There was suthin' 
else besides your wanting to make that Stan- 
ner take water. What is it ? " 

A light sense of the propinquity of beauty, 
of her confidence, of their isolation, of the 



150 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE\a. 

eloquence of her dark eyes, at first tempted 
Hale to a reply of simple gallantry ; a 
graver consideration of the same circum- 
stances froze it upon his lips. 

" I don't know," he returned awkwardly. 

" Well, I '11 tell you," she said. " You 
did n't cotton to the Kernel and Rawlins 
much more than you did to Stanner. They 
ain't your kind." 

In his embarrassment Hale blundered 
upon the thought he had honorably avoided. 

" Suppose," he said, with a constrained 
laugh, " I had stayed to see you." 

" I reckon I ain't your kind, neither," she 
replied promptly. There was a momentary 
pause when she rose and walked to the chim- 
ney. " It 's very quiet down there," she said, 
stooping and listening over the roughly- 
boarded floor that formed the ceiling of the 
room below. " I wonder what 's going on." 

In the belief that this was a delicate hint 
for his return to the party he had left. Hale 
rose, but the girl passed him hurriedly, and, 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 151 

opening the door, cast a quick glance into 
the stable beyond. 

" Just as I reckoned — the horses are 
gone too. They 've skedaddled," she said 
blankly. 

Hale did not reply. In his embarrass- 
ment a moment ago the idea of taking an 
equally sudden departure had flashed upon 
him. Should he take this as a justification of 
that impulse, or how ? He stood irresolutely 
gazing at the girl, who turned and began to 
descend the stairs silently. He followed. 
When they reached the lower room they 
found it as they had expected — deserted. 

"I hope I did n't drive them away," said 
Hale, with an uneasy look at the troubled 
face of the girl. " For I really had an idea 
of going myself a moment ago." 

She remained silent, gazing out of the win- 
dow. Then, turning with a slight shrug of 
her shoulders, said half defiantly : " What 's 
the use now ? Oh, Maw ! the Stanner crowd 
has vamosed the ranch, and this yer stranger 
kalkilates to stay ! " 



CHAPTER VII. 

A WEEK had passed at Eagle's Court — a 
week of mingled clouds and sunshine by day, 
of rain over the green plateau and snow on 
the mountain by night. Each morning had 
brought its fresh greenness to the winter- 
girt domain, and a fresh coat of dazzling 
white to the barrier that separated its dwell- 
ers from the world beyond. There was lit- 
tle change in the encompassing wall of their 
prison ; if anything, the snowy circle round 
them seemed to have drawn its lines nearer 
day by day. The immediate result of this 
restricted limit had been to confine the 
range of cattle to the meadows nearer the 
house, and at a safe distance from the fringe 
of wilderness now invaded by the prowling 
tread of predatory animals. 

Nevertheless, the two figures lounging on 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 153 

the slope at sunset gave very little indica- 
tion of any serious quality in the situation. 
Indeed, so far as appearances were con- 
cerned, Kate, who was returning from an 
afternoon stroll with Falkner, exhibited, 
with feminine inconsistency, a decided re- 
.turn to the world of fashion and conven- 
tionality apparently just as she was effectu- 
ally excluded from it. She had not only 
discarded her white dress as a concession to 
the practical evidence of the surrounding 
winter, but she had also brought out a 
feather hat and sable muff which had once 
graced a fashionable suburb of Boston. Even 
Falkner had exchanged his slouch hat and 
picturesque serape for a beaver overcoat and 
fur cap of Hale's which had been pressed 
upon him by Kate, under the excuse of the 
exigencies of the season. Within a stone's 
throw of the thicket, turbulent with the sav- 
age forces of nature, they walked with the 
abstraction of people hearing only their own 
voices ; in the face of the solemn peaks 



154 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

clothed with white austerity they talked 
gravely of dress. 

" I don't mean to say," said Kate demure- 
ly, " that you 're to give up the seraj)e en- 
tirely ; you can wear it on rainy nights and 
when you ride over here from your friend's 
house to spend the evening — for the sake 
of old times," she added, with an uncon- 
scious air of referring to an already anti- 
quated friendship ; " but you must admit it 's 
a little too gorgeous and theatrical for the 
sunlight of day and the public highway." 

" But why should that make it wrong, if 
the experience of a people has shown it to 
be a garment best fitted for their wants and 
requirements ? " said Falkner argumenta- 
tively. 

"But you are not one of those people," 
said Kate, " and that makes all the differ- 
ence. You look differently and act differ- 
ently, so that there is something irreconcil- 
able between your clothes and you that 
makes you look odd." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 155 

" And to look odd, according to your civil- 
ized prejudices, is to be wrong," said Falk- 
ner bitterly. 

" It is to seem different from wbat one 
really is — which is wrong. Now, you are 
a mining superintendent, you tell me. Then 
you don't want to look like a Spanish brig- 
and, as you do in that serajye, I am sure if 
you had ridden up to a stage-coach while I 
was in it, I 'd have handed you my watch 
and purse without a word. There ! you are 
not offended ? " she added, with a laugh, 
which did not, however, conceal a certain 
earnestness. " I suppose I ought to have 
said I would have given it gladly to such a 
romantic figure, and perhaps have got out 
and danced a saraband or bolero with you 
— if that is the thing to do nowadays. 
Well ! " 3he said, after a dangerous pause, 
" consider that I 've said it." 

He had been walking a little before her, 
with his face turned towards the distant 
mountain. Suddenly he stopped and faced 



156 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

her. " You would liave given enough of 
your time to the highwayman, Miss Soott, 
as would have enabled you to identify him 
for the police — and no more. Like your 
brother, you would have been willing to 
sacrifice yourself for the benefit of the laws 
of civilization and good order." 

If a denial to this assertion could have 
been expressed without the use of speech, it 
was certainly transparent in the face and 
eyes of the young girl at that moment. If 
Falkner had been less self-conscious he would 
have seen it plainly. But Kate only buried 
her face in her lifted muff, slightly raised 
her pretty shoulders, and, dropping her trem- 
ulous eyelids, walked on. " It seems a pity," 
she said, after a pause, " that we cannot pre- 
serve our own miserable existence without 
taking some thing from others — sometimes 
even a life ! " He started. " And it 's horrid 
to have to remind you that you have yet to 
kill something for the invalid's supper," she 
continued. " I saw a hare in the field yon- 
der." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 157 

"You mean that jackass rabbit?" he 
said, abstractedly. 

" What you please. It 's a pity you did n't 
take your gun instead of your rifle." 

" I brought the rifle for protection." 

"And a shot gun is only aggressive, I 
suppose ? " 

Falkner looked at her for a moment, and 
then, as the hare suddenly started across the 
open a hundred yards away, brought the 
rifle to his shoulder. A long interval — as 
it seemed to Kate — elapsed ; the animal ap- 
peared to be already safely out of range, 
when the rifle suddenly cracked ; the hare 
bounded in the air like a ball, and dropped 
motionless. The girl looked at the marks- 
man in undisguised admiration. " Is it quite 
dead ? " she said timidly. 

" It never knew what struck it." 

" It certainly looks less brutal than shoot- 
ing it with a shot gun, as John does, and 
then not kiUing it outright," said Kate. "I 
hate what- is called sport and sportsmen, but 
a rifle seems " — 



158 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

'' What?" said Falkner. 

" More — gentlemanly." 

She had raised her pretty head in the air, 
and, with her hand shading her eyes, was 
looking around the clear ether, and said 
meditatively, "I wonder — no matter." 

"What is it?" 

" Oh, nothing." 

" It is something," said Falkner, with an 
amused smile, reloading his rifle. 

" Well, you once promised ine an eagle's 
feather for my hat. Is n't that thing an 
eagle ? " 

" I am afraid it is only a hawk." 

" Well, that will do. Shoot that ! " 

Her eyes were sparkling. Falkner with- 
drew his own with a slight smile, and raised 
his rifle with provoking deliberation. 

" Are you quite sure it 's what you want ? " 
he asked demurely. 

"Yes — quick!" 

Nevertheless, it was some minutes before 
the rifle cracked again. The wheeling bird 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 159 

suddenly struck the wind witli its wings 
aslant, and then fell like a plummet at a 
distance which showed the difficulty of the 
feat. Falkner started from her side before 
the bird reached the ground. He returned 
to her after a lapse of a few moments, bear- 
ing a trailing wing in his hand. " You shall 
make your choice," he said gajdy. 

" Are you sure it was killed outright? " 

" Head shot off," said Falkner briefly. 

" And besides, the fall would have killed 
it," said Kate conclusively. " It 's lovely. 
I suppose they call you a very good shot ? " 

"They — who?" 

" Oh ! the people you know — your friends, 
and their sisters." 

" George shoots better than I do, and has 
had more experience. I 've seen him do that 
with a pistol. Of course not such a long 
shot, but a more difficult one." 

Kate did not reply, but her face showed 
a conviction that as an artistic and gentle- 
manly performance it was probably inferior 



160 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S., 

to tlie one she had witnessed. Falkner, who 
had picked up the hare also, again took his 
place by her side, as they turned towards the 
house. 

" Do you remember the day you came, 
when we were walking here, you pointed out 
that rock on the mountain where the poor 
animals had taken refuge from the snow ? " 
said Kate suddenly. 

" Yes," answered Falkner ; " they seem to 
have diminished. I am afraid you were 
right ; they have either eaten each other or 
escaped. Let us hope the latter." 

"I looked at them with a glass every day," 
said Kate, " and they 've got down to only 
four. There 's a bear and that shabby, over- 
grown cat you call a California lion, and a 
wolf, and a creature like a fox or a squirrel." 

" It 's a pity they 're not all of a kind," 
said Falkner. 

"Why?" 

" There 'd be nothing to keep them from 
being comfortable together." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 161 

" On the contrarj^ /should think it would 
be simply awful to be shut up entirely with 
one's own kind." 

" Then you believe it is possible for them, 
with their different natures and habits, to be 
happy together?" said Falkner, with sud- 
den earnestness. 

" I believe," said Kate hurriedly, " that 
the bear and the lion find the fox and the 
wolf very amusing, and that the fox and the 
wolf" — 

" Well ? " said Falkner, stopping short. 

" Well, the fox and the wolf will carry 
away a much better opinion of the lion and 
bear than they had before." 

They had reached the house by this time, 
and for some occult reason Kate did not im- 
mediately enter the parlor, where she had 
left her sister and the invalid, who had al- 
ready been promoted to a sofa and a cushion 
by the window, but proceeded directly to 
her own room. As a manoeuvre to avoid 
meeting Mrs. Hale, it was scarcely neces- 



162 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

sary, for that lady was already in advance of 
her on the staircase, as if she had left the 
parlor a moment before they entered the 
house. Falkner, too, would have preferred 
the company of his own thoughts, but Lee, 
apparently the only unpreoccupied, all-per- 
vading, and boyishly alert spirit in the party, 
hailed him from within, and obliged him to 
present himself on the threshold of the par- 
lor with the hare and hawk's wing he was 
still carrying. Eying the latter with affected 
concern, Lee said gravely : " Of course, I 
can eat it, Ned, and I dare say it 's the best 
part of the fowl, and the hare is n't more 
than enough for the women, but I had no 
idea we were so reduced. Three hours and 
a half gunning, and onlj^ one hare and ? 
hawk's wing. It 's terrible." 

Perceiving that his friend was alone, 
Falkner dropped his burden in the hall and 
strode rapidly to his side. " Look here, 
George, we must, /must, leave this place at 
once. It 's no use talking ; I can stand this 
sort of thing no longer." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 163 

"Nor can I, with the door open. Shut 
it, and say what you want quick, before 
Mrs. Hale comes back. Have you found a 
trail?" 

"No, no; that 's not what I mer.n." 

" Well, it strikes me it ought to be, if you 
expect to get away. Have you proposed to 
Beacon Street, and she thinks it rather pre- 
mature on a week's acquaintance ? " 

"No; but" — 

" But you will^ you mean ? Dont^ just 

yet." 

" But I cannot live this perpetual lie." 
" That depends. I don't know how you 're 
lying when I 'm not with you. If you 're 
walking round with that girl, singing hymns 
and talking of your class in Sunday-school, 
or if you 're insinuating that you 're a mil- 
lionaire, and think of buying the place for 
a summer hotel, I should say you 'd better 
quit that kind of lying. But, on the other 
hand, I don't see the necessity of your danc- 
ing round here with a shot gun, and yelling 



164i SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

for Harkins's blood, or counting that pack- 
age of greenbacks in the lap of Miss Scott, 
to be truthful. It seems to me there ought 
to be something between the two." 

"But, George, don't you think — you are 
on such good terms with Mrs. Hale and her 
mother — that you might tell them the whole 
story? That is, tell it in your own way; 
they will hear anything from you, and be- 
lieve it." 

" Thank you ; but suppose I don't believe 
in lying, either ? " 

"You know what I mean! You have a 
way, d — n it, of making everything seem 
like a matter of course, and the most natural 
thing going." 

" Well, suppose I did. Are you prepared 
for the worst ? " 

Falkner was silent for a moment, and then 
replied, "Yes, anything would be better 
than this suspense." 

" I don't agree with you. Then you would 
be willing to have them forgive us ? " 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 165 

" I don't understand you." 

" I mean that their forgiveness would be 
the worst thing that could hapi3en' Look 
here, Ned. Stop a moment ; listen at that 
door. Mrs. Hale has the tread of an angel, 
with the pervading capacity of a cat. Now 
listen ! / don't pretend to be in love with 
anybody here, but if I were I should hardly 
take advantage of a woman's helplessness 
and solitude with a sensational story about 
myself. It 's not giving her a fair show. 
You know she won't turn you out of the 
house." 

"No," said Falkner, reddening; "but I 
should expect to go at once, and that would 
be my only excuse for telling her." 

" Go ! where ? In your preoccupation with 
that girl you have n't even found the trail 
by which Manuel escaped. Do you intend 
to camp outside the house, and make eyes at 
her when she comes to the window ? " 

"Because you think nothing of flirting 
with Mrs. Hale," said Falkner bitterly, " you 
care little " — 



166 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" My dear Ned," said Lee, " the fact that 
Mrs. Hale has a husband, and knows that 
she can't marry me, puts us on equal terms. 
Nothing that she could learn about me here- 
after would make a flirtation with me any 
less wrong than it would be now, or make 
her seem more a victim. Can you say the 
same of yourself and that Puritan girl ? " 

" But you did not advise me to keep aloof 
from her ; on the contrary, you " — 

"I thought you might make the best 
of the situation, and pay her some atten- 
tion, because you could not go any fur- 
ther." 

" You thought I was utterly heartless and 
selfish, like " — 

" Ned ! " 

Falkner walked rapidly to the fireplace, 
and returned. 

" Forgive me, George — I 'm a fool — 
and an ungrateful one." 

Lee did not reply at once, although he 
took and retained the hand Falkner had im- 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 167 

pulsively extended. " Promise me," he said 
slowly, after a pause, " that you will say 
nothing yet to either of these women. I 
ask it for your own sake, and this girl's, 
not for mine. If, on the contrary, you are 
tempted to do so from any Quixotic idea of 
honor, remember that you will only precipi- 
tate something that will oblige you, from 
that same sense of honor, to separate from 
the girl forever." 

" I don't understand." 

" Enough ! " said he, with a quick return 
of his old reckless gayety. " Shoot-Off-His- 
Mouth — the Beardless Boy Chief of the 
Sierras — has spoken ! Let the Pale Face 
with the black moustache ponder and beware 
how he talks hereafter to the Rippling Co- 
chituate Water! Go ! " 

Nevertheless, as soon as the door had 
closed upon Falkner, Lee's smile vanished. 
With his colorless face turned to the fad- 
ing light at the window, the hollows in his 
temples and the lines in the corners of his 



168 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

eyes seemed to have grown more profound. 
He remained motionless and absorbed in 
thought so deep that the light rustle of a 
skirt, that would at other times have thrilled 
his sensitive ear, passed unheeded. At last, 
throwing off his reverie with the full and 
unrestrained sigh of a man who believes 
himself alone, he was startled by the soft 
laugh of Mrs. Hale, who had entered the 
room unperceived. 

" Dear me ! How portentous ! Keally, I 
almost feel as if I were interrupting a tete-d- 
tete between yourself and some old flame. I 
have n't heard anything so old-fashioned and 
conservative as that sigh since I have been 
in California. I thought you never had any 
Past out here ? " 

Fortunately his face was between her and 
the light, and the unmistakable expression 
of annoyance and impatience which passed 
over it was spared her. There was, however, 
still enough dissonance in his manner to af- 
fect her quick feminine sense, and when she 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 169 

drew nearer to liim it was with a certain 
maiden-like timidity. 

"You are not worse, Mr. Lee, I hope? 
You have not over-exerted yourself ? " 

" There 's little chance of that with one 
leg — if not in the grave at least mum- 
mified with bandages," he replied, with a 
bitterness new to him. 

"Shall I loosen them? Perhaps they are 
too tight. There is nothing so irritating to 
one as the sensation of being tightly bound." 

The light touch of her hand upon the rug 
that covered his knees, the thoughtful ten- 
derness of the blue-veined lids, and the deli- 
cate atmosphere that seemed to surround her 
like a perfume cleared his face of its shadow 
and brought back the reckless fire into his 
blue eyes. 

" I suppose 1 'm intolerant of all bonds," 
he said, looking at her intently, " in others 
as well as myself ! " 

Whether or not she detected any double 
meaning in his words, she was obliged to ac- 



170 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S, 

cept the challenge of his direct gaze, and, 
raising her eyes to his, drew back a little 
from him with a slight increase of color. 
" I was afraid you had heard bad news just 
now." 

" What would you call bad news ? " asked 
Lee, clasping his hands behind his head, and 
leaning back on the sofa, but without with- 
drawing his eyes from her face. 

" Oh, any news that would interrupt your 
convalescence, or break up our little family 
party," said Mrs. Hale. " You have been 
getting on so well that really it would seem 
cruel to have anything interfere with our 
life of forgetting and being forgotten. But," 
she added with apprehensive quickness, " has 
anything happened? Is there really any 
news from — from the trails ? Yesterday 
Mr. Falkner said the snow had recommenced 
in the pass. Has he seen anything, noticed 
anything different ? " 

She looked so very pretty, with the rare, 
genuine, and youthful excitement that trans- 



SNOW-ROUND AT EAGLE'S. 171 

figured her wearied and wearying regularity 
of feature, that X/ee contented himself with 
drinking in her prettiness as he would have 
* inhaled the perfume of some flower. 

" Why do you look at me so, Mr. Lee ? " 
she asked, with a slight smile. " I believe 
something has happened. Mr. Falkner has 
brought you some intelligence." 

" He has certainly found out something I 
did not foresee." 

" And that troubles you ? " 

" It does." 

" Is it a secret ? " 

" No." 

" Then I suppose you will tell it to me at 
dinner," she said, with a little tone of relief. 

" I am afraid, if I tell it at all, I must 
tell it now," he said, glancing at the door. 

"You must do as you think best," she 
said coldly, " as it seems to be a secret, after 
all." She hesitated. "Kate is dressing, 
and will not be down for some time." 

" So much the better. For I 'm afraid 



172 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S, 

that Ned has made a poor return to your 
hospitality by falling in love with her." 

" Impossible ! He has known her for 
scarcely a \?^eek." 

" I am afraid we won't agree as to the 
length of time necessary to appreciate and 
love a woman. I think it can be done in 
seven days and four hours, the exact time 
we have been here." 

" Yes ; but as Kate was not in when you 
arrived, and did not come until later, you 
must take off at least one hour," said Mrs. 
Hale gayly. 

" Ned can. / shall not abate a second." 

" But are you not mistaken in his feel- 
ings ? " she continued hurriedly. " He cer- 
tainly has not said anything to her.'' 

" That is his last hold on honor and rea- 
son. And to preserve that little intact he 
wants to run away at once." 

" But that would be very silly." 

" Do you think so ? " he said, looking at 
her fixedly. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 173 

" Why not ? " she asked in her turn, but 
rather faintly. 

" I '11 tell you why," he said, lowering his 
voice with a certain intensity of passion 
unlike his usual boyish light - heartedness. 
" Think of a man whose life has been one 
of alternate hardness and aggression, of sav- 
age disappointment and equally savage suc- 
cesses, who has known no other relaxation 
than dissipation or extravagance ; a man to 
whom the idea of the domestic hearth and 
family ties only meant weakness, effeminacy, 
or — worse ; who had looked for loyalty and 
devotion only in the man who battled for 
him at his right hand in danger, or shared 
his privations and sufferings. Think of 
such a man, and imagine that an accident 
has suddenly placed him in an atmosphere 
of purity, gentleness, and peace, surrounded 
him by the refinements of a higher life than 
he had ever known, and that he found him- 
seK as in a dream, on terms of equality with 
a pure woman who had never known any 



174 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

other life, and yet would understand and 
pity his. Imagine his loving her I Imagine 
that the first effect of that love was to show 
him his own inferiority and the immeasura- 
ble gulf that lay between his life and hers ! 
Would he not fly rather than brave the 
disgrace of her awakening to the truth? 
Would he not fly rather than accept even the 
pity that might tempt her to a sacrifice ? " 

" But — is Mr. Falkner all that ? " 

" Nothing of the kind, I assure you ! " 
said he demurely. " But that 's the way a 
man in love feels." 

" Really ! Mr. Falkner should get you 
to plead his cause with Kate," said Mrs. 
Hale with a faint laugh. 

" I need all my persuasive powers in that 
way for myself," said Lee boldly. 

Mrs. Hale rose. " I think I hear Kate 
coming," she said. Nevertheless, she did 
not move away. " It is Kate coming," she 
added hurriedly, stopi3ing to pick up her 
work-basket, which had slipped with Lee's 
hand from her own. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 175 

It was Kate, who at once flew to her sis- 
ter's assistance, Lee deploring from the sofa 
his own utter inability to aid her. " It 's 
all my fault, too," he said to Kate, but look- 
ing at Mrs. Hale. " It seems I have a fac- 
ulty of uj)setting existing arrangements with- 
out the power of improving them, or even 
putting them back in their places. What 
shall I do ? I am willing to hold any num- 
ber of skeins or rewind any quantity of 
spools. I am even wiUing to forgive Ned 
for spending the whole day with you, and 
only bringing me the wing of a hawk for 
supper." 

" That was all my folly, Mr. Lee," said 
Kate, with swift mendacity ; " he was all the 
time looking after something for you, when 
I begged him to shoot a bird to get a feather 
for my hat. And that wing is so pretty." 

" It is a pity that mere beauty is not edi- 
ble," said Lee, gravely, "and that if the 
worst comes to the worst here you would 
probably prefer me to Ned and his mous- 



176 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

tachios, merely because I've been tied by 
the leg to this sofa and slowly fattened like 
a Strasbourg goose." 

Nevertheless, his badinage failed somehow 
to amuse Kate, and she presently excused 
herself to rejoin her sister, who had already 
slipped from the room. For the first time 
during their enforced seclusion a sense of 
restraint and uneasiness affected Mrs. Hale, 
her sister, and Falkner at dinner. The lat- 
ter addressed himself to Mrs. Scott, almost 
entirely. Mrs. Hale was fain to bestow an 
exceptional and marked tenderness on her 
little daughter Minnie, who, however, by 
some occult childish instinct, insisted upon 
sharing it with Lee — her great friend — to 
Mrs. Hale's uneasy consciousness. Nor was 
Lee slow to profit by the child's suggestion, 
but responded with certain vicarious caresses 
that increased the mother's embarrassment. 
That evening they retired early, but in the 
intervals of a restless night Kate was aware, 
from the sound of voices in the opposite 
room, that the friends were equally wakeful. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 177 

A morning of bright sunshine and soft 
warm air did not, however, bring any change 
to their new and constrained relations. It 
only seemed to offer a reason for Falkner 
to leav^e the house very early for his daily 
rounds, and gave Lee that occasion for un- 
aided exercise with an extempore crutch on 
the veranda which allowed Mrs. Hale to 
pursue her manifold duties without the ne- 
cessity of keeping him company. Kate also, 
as if to avoid an accidental meeting with 
Falkner, had remained at home with her sis- 
ter. With one exception, they did not make 
their guests the subject of their usual play- 
ful comments, nor, after the fashion of their 
sex, quote their ideas and opinions. That 
exception was made by Mrs. Hale. 

" You have had no difference with Mr. 
Falkner ? " she said carelessly. 

" No," said Kate quickly. " Why ? " 

" I only thought he seemed rather put out 
at dinner last night, and you did n't propose 
to go and meet him to-day." 



178 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

" He must be bored witli my company at 
times, I dare say," said Kate, with an indif- 
ference quite inconsistent with her rising 
color. " I should n't wonder if he was a lit- 
tle vexed with Mr. Lee's chaffing him about 
his sport yesterday, and probably intends to 
go further to-day, and bring home larger 
game. I think Mr. Lee very amusing al- 
ways, but I sometimes fancy he lacks feel- 
ing." 

" Feeling ! You don't know him, Kate," 
said Mrs. Hale quickly. She stopped her- 
self, but with a half-smiling recollection in 
her dropped eyelids. 

" Well, he does n't look very amiable now, 
stamping up and down the veranda. Per- 
haps you 'd better go and soothe him." 

" I 'm really so busy just now," said Mrs. 
Hale, with sudden and inconsequent energy ; 
" things have got dreadfully behind in the 
last week. You had better go, Kate, and 
make him sit down, or he '11 be overdoing it. 
These men never know any medium — in 
anything." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 179 

Contrary to Kate's expectation, Falkner 
returned earlier than usual, and, taking the 
invalid's arm, supported him in a more am- 
bitious walk along the terrace before the 
house. They were apparently absorbed in 
conversation, but the two women who ob- 
served them from the window could not help 
noticing the almost feminine tenderness of 
Falkner's manner towards his wounded 
friend, and the thoughtful tenderness of his 
ministering care. 

"I wonder," said Mrs. Hale, following 
them with softly appreciative eyes, " if wo- 
men are capable of as disinterested friend- 
ship as men ? I never saw anything like the 
devotion of these two creatures. Look I if 
Mr. Falkner has n't got his arm round Mr. 
Lee's waist, and Lee, with his own arm over 
Falkner's neck, is looking up in his eyes. I 
declare, Kate, it almost seems an indiscre- 
tion to look at them." 

Kate, however, to Mrs. Hale's indigna- 
tion, threw her pretty head back and sniffed 



180 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

the air contemptuously. " I really don't see 
anything but some absurd sentimentalism 
of their own, or some mannish wickedness 
they 're concocting by themselves. I am by 
no means certain, Josephine, that Lee's in- 
fluence over that young man is the best thing 
for him." 

" On the contrary ! Lee's influence seems 
the only thing that checks his waywardness," 
said Mrs. Hale quickly. " I 'm sure, if any 
one makes sacrifices, it is Lee ; I should n't 
wonder that even now he is making some 
concession to Falkner, and all those caress- 
ing ways of your friend are for a purpose. 
They 're not much different from us, dear." 

" Well, 1 would n't stand there and let 
them see me looking at them as if I could n't 
bear them out of my sight for a moment," 
said Kate, whisking herself out of the room. 
" They 're conceited enough. Heaven knows, 
already." 

That evening, at dinner, however, the two 
men exhibited no trace of the restraint or 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 181 

uneasiness of the previous day. If they were 
less impulsive and exuberant, they were still 
frank and interested, and if the term could 
be used in connection with men apparently 
trained to neither self-control nor repose, 
there was a certain gentle dignity in their 
manner which for the time had the effect of 
lifting them a little above the social level of 
their entertainers. For even with all their 
predisposition to the strangers, Kate and 
Mrs. Hale had always retained a conscious 
attitude of gentle condescension and superi- 
ority towards them — an attitude not incon- 
sistent with a stronger feeling, nor altogether 
unprovocative of it; yet this evening they 
found themselves impressed with something 
more than an equality in the men who had 
amused and interested them, and they were 
perhaps a little more critical and doubtful of 
their own power. Mrs. Hale's little girl, who 
had appreciated only the seriousness of the 
situation, had made her own application of 
it. " Are you dow'in' away from aunt Kate 



182 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

and mamma ? " she asked, in an interval of 
silence. 

" How else can I get you the red snow we 
saw at sunset, the other day, on the peak 
yonder?" said Lee gayly. " I '11 have to get 
up some morning very early, and catch it 
when it comes at sunrise." 

"What is this wonderful snow, Minnie, 
that you are tormenting Mr. Lee for?" 
asked Mrs. Hale. 

" Oh ! it 's a fairy snow that he told me 
all about ; it only comes when the sun comes 
up and goes down, and if you catch ever so 
little of it in your hand it makes all you fink 
you want come true! Wouldn't that be 
nice ? " But to the child's astonishment her 
little circle of auditors, even while assent- 
ing, sighed. 

The red snow was there plain enough the 
next morning before the valley was warm 
with light, and while Minnie, her mother, 
and aunt Kate were still peacefully sleeping. 
And Mr. Lee had kept his word, and was 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 183 

evidently seeking it, for he and Falkner 
were already urging their horses through 
the pass, with their faces towards and lit up 
by its glow. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Kate was stirring early, but not as early 
as her sister, who met her on the threshold 
of her room. Her face was quite pale, and 
she held a letter in her hand. " What does 
this mean, Kate ? " 

" What is the matter ? " asked Kate, her 
own color fading from her cheek. 

" They are gone — with their horses. Left 
before day, and left this." 

She handed Kate an open letter. The 
girl took it hurriedly, and read — 

" When you get this we shall be no more ; 
perhaps not even as much. Ned found the 
trail yesterday, and we are taking the first 
advantage of it before day. We dared not 
trust ourselves to say ' Good-by ! ' last even- 
ing ; we were too cowardly to face you this 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 185 

morning ; we must go as we came, without 
warning, but not without regret. We leave 
a package and a letter for your husband. It 
is not only our poor return for your gentle- 
ness and hospitality, but, since it was acci- 
dentally the means of giving us the pleasure 
of your society, we beg you to keep it in 
safety until his return. We kiss your moth- 
er's hands. Ned wants to say something 
more, but time presses, and I only allow 
him to send his love to Minnie, and to tell 
her that he is trying to find the red snow. 
"George Lee." 

" But he is not fit to travel," said Mrs. 
Hale. " And the trail — it may not be pass- 
able." 

" It was passable the day before yester- 
day," said Kate drearily, "for I discovered 
it, and went as far as the buck-eyes." 

" Then it was you who told them about 
it," said Mrs. Hale reproachfully. 

" No," said Kate indignantly. " Of course 



186 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

I did n't." She stopped, and, reading the 
significance of her speech in the glistening 
eyes of her sister, she bhished. Josej)hine 
kissed her, and said — 

" It was treating us like children, Kate, 
but we must make them pay for it hereafter. 
For that package and letter to John means 
something, and we shall probably see them 
before long. I wonder what the letter is 
about, and what is in the package ? " 

"Probably one of Mr. Lee's jokes. He 
is quite capable of turning the whole thing 
into ridicule. I dare say he considers his 
visit here a prolonged jest." 

"With his poor leg, Kate? You are as 
unfair to him as you were to Falkner when 
they first came." 

Kate, however, kept her dark eyebrows 
knitted in a piquant frown. 

" To think of his intimating what he would 
allow Falkner to say ! And yet you believe 
he has no evil influence over the young 
man." 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 187 

Mrs. Hale laughed. " Where are you go- 
ins: so fast, Kate?" she called mischiev- 
ously, as the young lady flounced out of the 
room. 

"Where? Why, to tidy John's room. 
He may be coming at any moment now. Or 
do you want to do it yourself ? " 

" No, no," returned Mrs. Hale hurriedly ; 
" you do it. I '11 look in a little later on." 

She turned away with a sigh. The sun 
was shining brilliantly outside. Through 
the half-open blinds its long shafts seemed 
to be searching the house for the lost guests, 
and making the hollow shell appear doubly 
empty. What a contrast to the dear dark 
days of mysterious seclusion and delicious 
security, lit by Lee's laughter and the spar- 
kling hearth, which had passed so quickly ! 
The forgotten outer world seemed to have 
returned to the house through those open 
windows and awakened its dwellers from a 
dream. 

The morning seemed interminable, and it 



188 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

was past noon, while they were deep in p. 
sympathetic conference with Mrs. Scott, who 
had drawn a pathetic word-picture of the 
two friends perishing in the snow-drift, with- 
out flannels, larandy, smelling-salts, or jelly, 
which they had forgotten, when they were 
startled by the loud barking of " Spot " on 
the lawn before the house. The women 
looked hurriedly at each other. 

" They have returned," said Mrs. Hale. 

Kate ran to the window. A horseman 
was approaching the house. A single glance 
showed her that it was neither Falkner, Lee, 
nor Hale, but a stranger. 

" Perhaps he brings some news of them," 
said Mrs. Scott quickly. So complete had 
been their preoccupation with the loss of 
their guests that they could not yet conceive 
of anything that did not pertain to it. 

The stranger, who was at once ushered 
into the parlor, was evidently disconcerted 
by the presence of the three women. 

" I reckoned to see John Hale yer," he 
began, awkwardly. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 189 

A slight look of disappointment passed 
over their faces. " He has not yet returned," 
said Mrs. Hale briefly. 

" Sho ! I wanter know. He 's hed time to 
do it, I reckon," said the stranger. 

"I suppose he hasn't been able to get 
over from the Summit," returned Mrs. Hale. 
" The trail is closed." 

"It ain't now, for I kem over it this 
mornin' myself." 

" You did n't — meet — any one ? " asked 
Mrs. Hale timidly, with a glance at the 
others. 

" No." 

A long silence ensued. The unfortunate 
visitor plainly perceived an evident abate- 
ment of interest in himself, yet he still 
struggled politely to say something. " Then 
I reckon you know what kept Hale away ? " 
he said dubiously. 

" Oil, certainly — the stage robbery." 

" I wish I 'd known that," said the stran- 
ger reflectively, " for I ez good ez rode over 



190 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

jist to tell it to ye. Ye see John Hale, lie 
sent a note to ye 'splainin' matters by a gen- 
tleman ; but the road agents tackled that 
man, and left him for dead in the road." 

" Yes," said Mrs. Hale impatiently. 

" Luckily he did n't die, but kem to, and 
managed to crawl inter the brush, whar I 
found him when I was lookin' for stock, and 
brought him to my house " — 

" Jow found him ? Your house?" inter- 
rupted Mrs. Hale. 

"Inter my house," continued the man 
doggedly. " I 'm Thompson of Thompson's 
Pass over yon ; mebbe it ain't much of a 
house ; but I brought him thar. Well, ez 
he could n't find the note that Hale had guv 
him, and like ez not the road agents had 
gone through him and got it, ez soon ez the 
weather let up I made a break over yer to 
tell ye." 

" You say Mr. Lee came to your house," 
repeated Mrs. Hale, " and is there now ? " 

" Not much," said the man grimly ; " and 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 191 

I never said Lee was tliar. I mean that 
Bilson waz shot by Lee and kem " — 

" Certainly, Josephine ! " said Kate, sud- 
denly stepping between her sister and Thomp- 
son, and turning upon her a white face and 
eyes of silencing significance ; " certainly — 
don't you remember ? — that 's the story we 
got from the Cliinaman, you know, only 
muddled. . Go on, sir," she continued, turn- 
ing to Thompson calmly ; " you say that the 
man who brought the note from my brother 
was shot by Lee ? " 

"And another fellow they call Falkner. 
Yes, that 's about the size of it." 

"Thank you; it's nearly the same story 
that we heard. But you have had a long 
ride, Mr. Thompson ; let me offer you a glass 
of whiskey in the dining-room. This way, 
please." 

The door closed upon them none too soon. 
For Mrs. Hale already felt the room whirl- 
ing around her, and sank back into her chair 
with a hysterical laugh. Old Mrs. Scott 



192 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

did not move from her seat, but, with her 
eyes fixed on the door, impatiently waited 
Kate's return. Neither spoke, but each felt 
that the young, untried girl was equal to the 
emergency, and would get at the truth. 

The sound of Thompson's feet in the hall 
and the closing of the front door was fol- 
lowed by Kate's reappearance. Her face 
was still pale, but calm. 

" Well ? " said the two women in a breath. 

"Well," returned Kate slowly; "Mr. 
Lee and Mr. Falkner were undoubtedly the 
two men who took the paper from John's 
messenger and brought it here." 

" You are sure ? " said Mrs. Scott. 

" There can be no mistake, mother." 

" 7%e?i," said Mrs. Scott, with triumphant 
feminine logic, " I don't want anything more 
to satisfy me that they are perfectly inno- 
cent ! " 

More convincing than the most perfect 
masculine deduction, this single expression 
of their common nature sent a thrill of 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 193 

sympathy and understanding throngli each. 
They cried for a few moments on each 
other's shoulders. "To think," said Mrs. 
Scott, " what that poor boy must have suf- 
fered to have been obliged to do — that to 
— to — Bilson — is n't that the creature's 
name ? I suppose we ought to send over 
there and inquire after him, with some 
chicken and jelly, Kate. It 's only common 
humanity, and we must be just, my dear ; 
for even if he shot Mr. Lee and provoked 
the poor boy to shoot him, he may have 
thought it his duty. And then, it will avert 
suspicions." 

" To think," murmured Mrs. Hale, " what 
they must have gone through while they 
were here — momentarily expecting John to 
come, and yet keeping up such a light heart." 

" I believe, if they had stayed any longer, 
they would have told us everything," said 
Mrs. Scott. 

Both the younger women were silent. 
Kate was thinking of Falkner's significant 



194 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

speech as they neared the house on their last 
walk ; Josephine was recalling the remorse- 
ful picture drawn by Lee, which she knew 
was his own portrait. Suddenly she started. 

" But John will be here soon ; what are 
we to tell him? And then that package 
and that letter." 

" Don't be in a hurry to tell him anything 
at present, my child," said Mrs. Scott gently. 
" It is unfortunate this Mr. Thompson called 
here, but we are not obliged to understand 
what he says now about John's message, or 
to connect our visitors with his story. I 'm 
sure, Kate, I should have treated them ex- 
actly as we did if they had come without 
any message from John ; so I do not know 
why we should lay any stress on that, or 
even speak of it. The simple fact is that we 
have opened our house to two strangers in 
distress. Your husband," continued Mr. 
Hale's mother-in-law, "does not require to 
know more. As to the letter and package, 
we will keep that for further consideration. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 195 

It cannot be of much imjDortance, or they 
would have spoken of it before ; it is prob- 
ably some trifling present as a return for 
your hospitality. I should use no indecorous 
haste in having it opened." 

The two women kissed Mrs. Scott with a 
feeling of relief, and fell back into the mo- 
notony of their household duties. It is to 
be feared, however, that the absence of their 
outlawed guests was nearly as dangerous as 
their presence in the opportunity it afforded 
for uninterrupted and imaginative reflec- 
tion. Both Kate and Josephine were at first 
shocked and wounded by the discovery of the 
real character of the two men with whom they 
had associated so familiarly, but it was no 
disparagement to their sense of propriety to 
say that the shock did not last long, and was 
accompanied with the fascination of danger. 
This was succeeded by a consciousness of 
the delicate flattery implied in their indirect 
influence over the men who had undoubtedly 
risked their lives for the sake of remaining 



196 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

with them. The best woman is not above 
being touched by the effect of her power 
over the worst man, and Kate at first allowed 
herself to think of Falkner in that light. 
But if in her later reflections he suffered 
as a heroic experience to be forgotten, he 
gained something as an actual man to be 
remembered. Now that the proposed rides 
from " his friend's house " were a part of the 
illusion, would he ever dare to visit them 
again ? Would she dare to see him ? She 
held her breath with a sudden pain of part- 
ing that was new to her ; she tried to think 
of something else, to pick up the scattered 
threads of her life before that eventful day. 
But in vain; that one week had filled the 
place with implacable memories, or more 
terrible, as it seemed to her and her sister, 
they had both lost their feeble, alien hold 
upon Eagle's Court in the sudden presence 
of the real genii of these solitudes, and 
henceforth they alone would be the strangers 
there. They scarcely dared to confess it to 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 197 

each other, but this return to the dazzling 
sunlight and cloudless skies of the past ap- 
peared to them to be the one unreal experi- 
ence; they had never known the true wild 
flavor of their home, except in that week of 
delicious isolation. Without breathing it 
aloud, they longed for some vague denoii- 
ment to this experience that should take 
them from Eagle's Court forever. 

It was noon the next day when the little 
household beheld the last shred of their il- 
lusion vanish like the melting snow in the 
strong sunlight of John Hale's return. He 
was accompanied by Colonel Clinch and 
Rawlins, two strangers, to the women. Was 
it fancy, or the avenging spirit of their 
absent companions? but he too looked a 
stranger, and as the little cavalcade wound 
its way up the slope he appeared to sit his 
horse and wear his hat with a certain slouch 
and absence of his usual restraint that 
strangely shocked them. Even the old half- 
condescending, half-punctilious gallantry of 



198 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

his greeting of his wife and family was 
changed, as he introduced his companions 
with a mingling of familiarity and shyness 
that was new to him. Did Mrs. Hale regret 
it, or feel a sense of relief in the absence of 
his usual seignorial formality? She only 
knew that she was grateful for the presence 
of the strangers, which for the moment post- 
poned a matrimonial confidence from which 
she shrunk. 

" Proud to know you," said Colonel Clinch, 
with a sudden outbreak of the antique gal- 
lantry of some remote Huguenot ancestor. 
" My friend, Judge Hale, must be a regular 
Roman citizen to leave such a family and 
such a house at the call of public duty. Eh, 
Eawlins ? " 

" You bet," said Rawlins, looking from 
Kate to her sister in undisguised admira- 
tion. 

" And I suppose the duty could not have 
been a very j^leasant one," said Mrs. Hale, 
timidly, without looking at her husband. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 199 

" Gad, madam, that 's just it," said the gal- 
lant Colonel, seating himself with a comfort- 
able air, and an easy, though by no means 
disrespectful, familiarity. "We went into 
this fight a little more than a week ago. 
The only scrimmage we've had has been 
with the detectives that were on the robbers' 
track. Ha ! ha ! The best people we 've 
met have been the friends of the men we 
were huntin', and we 've generally come to 
the conclusion to vote the other ticket ! Ez 
Judge Hale and me agreed ez we came 
alon<r, the two men ez we 'd most like to see 
just now and shake hands with are George 
Lee and Ned Falkner." 

" The two leaders of the party who robbed 
the coach," explained Mr. Hale, with a slight 
return of his usual precision of statement. 

The three women looked at each other 
with a blaze of thanksgiving in their grate- 
ful eyes. Without comprehending all that 
Colonel Clinch had said, they understood 
enough to know that their late guests were 



200 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

safe from the pursuit of that party, and that 
their own conduct was spared criticism. I 
hardly dare write it, but they instantly as- 
sumed the appearance of aggrieved martyrs, 
and felt as if they were ! 

"Yes, ladies ! " continued the Colonel, in- 
spired by the bright eyes fixed upon him. 
" We have n't taken the road ourselves yet, 
but — pohn honor — we would n't mind do- 
ing it in a case like this." Then with the 
fluent, but somewhat exaggerated, phraseol- 
ogy of a man trained to " stump " speaking, 
he gave an account of the robbery and his 
own connection with it. He spoke of the 
swindling and treachery which had undoubt- 
edly provoked Falkner to obtain restitution 
of his property by an overt act of violence 
under the leadership of Lee. He added 
that he had learned since at Wild Cat Sta- 
tion that Harkins had fled the country, that 
a suit had been commenced by the Excelsior 
Ditch Company, and that all available prop- 
erty of Harkins had been seized by the 
sheriff. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 201 

" Of course it can't be proved yet, but 
there 's no doubt in my mind that Lee, who 
is an old friend of Ned Falkner's, got up 
that job to help him, and that Ned 's off with 
the money by this time — and I 'm right glad 
of it. I can't say ez we 've done much to- 
wards it, except to keep tumbling in the way 
of that detective party of Stanner's, and so 
throw them off the trail — ha, ha ! The 
Judge here, I reckon, has had his share of 
fun, for while he was at Hennicker's trying 
to get some facts from Hennicker's pretty 
daughter, Stanner tried to get up some sort 
of vigilance committee of the stage passen- 
gers to burn down Hennicker's ranch out of 
spite, but the Judge here stepped in and 
stopped that." 

" It was really a high-handed proceeding, 
Josephine, but I managed to check it," said 
Hale, meeting somewhat consciously the first 
direct look his wife had cast upon him, and 
falling back for support on his old manner. 
" In its way, I think it was worse than the 



202 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

robbery by Lee and Falkner, for it was done 
in tbe name of law and order ; while, as far 
as I can judge from the facts, the affair that 
we were following up was simply a rude and 
irregular restitution of property that had 
been morally stolen." 

" I have no doubt you did quite right, 
though I don't understand it," said Mrs. 
Hale languidly ; " but I trust these gentle- 
men will stay to luncheon, and in the mean 
time excuse us for running away, as we are 
short of servants, and Manuel seems to have 
followed the example of the head of the house 
and left us, in pursuit of somebody or some- 
thing." 

When the three women had gained the 
vantage-ground of the drawing-room, Kate 
said, earnestly, " As it 's all right, had n't we 
better tell him now ? " 

" Decidedly not, child," said Mrs. Scott, 
imperatively. " Do you suppose they are in 
a hurry to tell us their whole story ? Who 
are those Hennicker people ? and they were 
there a week ago ! " 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 203 

" And did you notice John's hat when he 
came in, and the vulgar familiarity of call- 
ing him ' Judge ' ? " said Mrs. Hale. 

" Well, certainly anything like the famil- 
iarity of this man Clinch / never saw," said 
Kate. " Contrast his manner with Mr. Falk- 
ner's." 

At luncheon the three suffering martyrs 
finally succeeded in reducing Hale and his 
two friends to an attitude of vague apology. 
But their triumph was short-lived. At the 
end of the meal they were startled by the 
trampling of hoofs v/ithout, followed by loud 
knocking. In another moment the door was 
opened, and Mr. Stanner strode into the 
room. Hale rose with a look of indigna- 
tion. 

" I thought, as Mr. Stanner understood 
that I had no desire for his company else- 
where, he would hardly venture to intrude 
upon me in my house, and certainly not 
after " — 

" Ef you 're alluding to the Vigilantes 



204 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

shakin' you and Zeenie up at Hennicker's, 
you can't make me responsible for that. 
I 'm here now on business — you under- 
stand — reg'lar business. Ef you want to 
see the papers yer ken. I suppose you know 
what a warrant is ? " 

" I know what you are," said Hale hotly ; 
" and if you don't leave my house " — 

" Steady, boys," interrupted Stanner, as his 
five henchmen filed into the hall. " There 's 
no backin' down here. Colonel Clinch, unless 
you and Hale kalkilate to back down the 
State of Calif orny ! The matter stands like 
this. There 's a half-breed Mexican, called 
Manuel, arrested over at the Summit, who 
swears he saw George Lee and Edward Falk- 
ner in this house the night after the robbery. 
He says that they were makin' themselves at 
home here, as if they were among friends, 
and considerin' the kind of help we 've had 
from Mr. John Hale, it looks ez if it might 
be true." 

" It 's an infamous lie ! " said Hale. 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 205 

" It may be true, John," said Mrs. Scott, 
suddenly stepping in front of her pale- 
cheeked daughters. " A wounded man was 
brought here out of the storm by his friend, 
who claimed the shelter of your roof. As 
your mother I should have been unworthy 
to stay beneath it and have denied that 
shelter or withheld it until I knew his name 
and what he was. He stayed here until he 
could be removed. He left a letter for you. 
It will probably tell you if he was the man 
this person is seeking." 

" Thank you, mother," said Hale, lifting 
her hand to his lips quietly ; " and perhaps 
you will kindly tell these gentlemen that, as 
your son does not care to know who or what 
the stranger was, there is no necessity for 
opening the letter, or keeping Mr. Stanner a 
moment longer." 

*' But you will oblige me, John, by opening 
it before these gentlemen," said Mrs. Hale, 
recovering her voice and color. " Please to 
follow me," she said, preceding them to the 
staircase. 



206 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

They entered Mr. Hale's room, now re- 
stored to its original condition. On the 
table lay a letter and a small package. The 
eyes of Mr. Stanner, a little abashed by the 
attitude of the two women, fastened upon it 
and glistened. 

Josephine handed her husband the let- 
ter. He opened it in breathless silence and 
read — 

" John Hale, 

" We owe you no return for voluntarily 
making yourself a champion of justice and 
pursuing us, except it was to offer you a fair 
field and no favor. We did n't get that 
much from you, but accident brought us into 
your house and into your family, where we 
did get it, and were fairly vanquished. To 
the victors belong the spoils. We leave the 
package of greenbacks which we took from 
Colonel Clinch in the Sierra coach, but 
which was first stolen by Harkins from 
forty -four shareholders of the Excelsior 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLETS. 207 

Ditch. We have no right to say what you 
should do with it, but if you are n't tired of 
following the same line of justice that in- 
duced you to run after us^ you will try to 
restore it to its rightful owners. 

" We leave you another trifle as an evi- 
dence that our intrusion into your affairs 
was not without some service to you, even 
if the service was as accidental as the intru- 
sion. You will find a pair of boots in the 
corner of your closet. They were taken 
from the burglarious feet of Manuel, your 
peon^ who, believing the three ladies were 
alone and at his mercy, entered your house 
with an accomplice at two o'clock on the 
morning of the 21st, and was kicked out by 

" Your obedient servants, 

" George Lee & Edward Falkner." 

Hale's voice and color changed on reading 
this last paragraph. He turned quickly to- 
wards his wife ; Kate flew to the closet, where 
the muffled boots of Manuel confronted 



208 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

them. " We never knew it. I always sus« 
pected something that night," said Mrs. Hale 
and Mrs. Scott in the same breath. 

" That 's all very well, and like George 
Lee's high falutin','' said Stanner, approach- 
ing the table, " but as long ez the greenbacks 
are here he can make what capital he likes 
outer Manuel. I '11 trouble you to pass over 
that package." 

" Excuse me," said Hale, " but I believe 
this is the package taken from Colonel 
Clinch. Is it not ? " he added, appealing to 
the Colonel. 

" It is," said Clinch. 

"Then take it," said Hale, handing him 
the package. " The first restitution is to you, 
but I believe you will fulfil Lee's instruc- 
tions as well as myself." 

" But," said Stanner, furiously interpos- 
ing, " I 've a warrant to seize that wherever 
found, and I dare you to disobey the law.'^ 

"Mr. Stanner," said Clinch, slowly, " there 
are ladies present. If you insist upon hav« 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 209 

ing that package I must ask them to with- 
draw, and I 'm afraid you '11 find me better 
prepared to resist a second robbery than I 
was the first. Your warrant, which was 
taken out by the Express Company, is sup- 
planted by civil proceedings taken the day 
before yesterday against the property of 
the fugitive swindler Harkins ! You should 
have consulted the sheriff before you came 
here." 

Stanner saw his mistake. But in the 
faces of his grinning followers he was 
obliged to keep up his bluster. " You 
shall hear from me again, sir," he said, 
turning on his heel. 

" I beg your pardon," said Clinch grimly, 
" but do I understand that at last I am to 
have the honor " — 

" You shall hear from the Company's law- 
yers, sir," said Stanner, turning red, and 
noisily leaving the room. 

" And so, my dear ladies," said Colonel 
Clinch, " you have spent a week with a high- 



210 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

wayman. I say a highwayman, for it would 
be hard to call my young friend Falkner by 
that name for his first offence, committed 
under great" provocation, and undoubtedly 
instigated by Lee, who was an old friend of 
his, and to whom he came, no doubt, in des- 
peration." 

Kate stole a triumphant glance at her sis- 
ter, whc dropped her lids over her glistening 
eyes. " And this Mr. Lee," she continued 
more gently, " is he really a highwayman ? " 

" George Lee," said Clinch, settling him- 
self back orator ically in his chair, " my dear 
young lady, is a highwayman, but not of 
the common sort. He is a gentleman born, 
madam, comes from one of the oldest fami- 
lies of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He 
never mixes himself up with anything but 
some of the biggest strikes, and he 's an 
educated man. He is very popular with la- 
dies and children ; he was never known to 
do or say anything that could bring a blush 
to the cheek of beauty or a tear to the eye 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 211 

of innocence. I think I may say I 'm sure 
you found him so." 

" I shall never believe him anything but 
a gentleman," said Mrs. Scott, firmly. 

" If he has a defect, it is perhaps a too 
reckless indulgence in draw^ poker," said the 
Colonel, musingly ; " not unbecoming a gen- 
tleman, understand me, Mrs. Scott, but per- 
haps too reckless for his own good. George 
played a grand game, a glittering game, but 
pardon me if I say an uncertain game. I 've 
told him so ; it 's the only point on which 
we ever differed." 

" Then you know him ? " said Mrs. Hale, 
lifting her soft eyes to the Colonel. 

" 1 have that honor." 

" Did his appearance, Josephine," broke 
in Hale, somewhat ostentatiously, "appear 
to — er — er — correspond with these quali- 
ties ? You know what I mean." 

" He certainly seemed very simple and 
natural," said Mrs. Hale, slightly drawing 
her pretty lips together. " He did not wear 



212 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 

his trousers rolled up over his boots in the 
company of ladies, as you 're doing now, nor 
did he make his first appearance in this 
house with such a hat as you wore this morn- 
ing, or I should not have admitted him." 

There were a few moments of embarrass- 
ing silence. 

" Do you intend to give that package to 
Mr. Falkner yourself, Colonel? " asked Mrs. 
Scott. 

"I shall hand it over to the Excelsior 
Company," said the Colonel, "but I shall 
inform Ked of what I have done." 

" Then," said Mrs. Scott, " will you kindly 
take a message from us to him ? " 

" If you wish it." 

" You will be doing me a great favor, Colo- 
nel," said Hale, politely. 

Whatever the message was, six months 
later it brought Edward Falkner, the rees- 
tablished superintendent of the Excelsior 
Ditch, to Eagle's Court. As he and Kate 



SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S. 213 

stood again on the plateau, looking towards 
the distant slopes once more green with ver- 
dure, Falkner said — 

^* Everything here looks as it did the first 
day I saw it, except your sister." 

'' The place does not agree with her," said 
Kate hurriedly. " That is why my brother 
thinks of leaving it before the winter sets 
in." 

" It seems so sad," said Falkner, " for the 
last words poor George said to me, as he 
left to join his cousin's corps at Richmond, 
were : * If I 'm not killed, Ned, I hope some 
day to stand again beside Mrs. Hale, at the 
window in Eagle's Court, and watch you and 
Kate coming home ! ' " 



THE END. 



